Julian Bashir Must Suffer
by GeorgieGinger
Summary: Basically I'm annoyed all the bad stuff happened to O'Brien, so it's Bashir's turn for a change! -I changed the title and summary-
1. Chapter 1

_**Greetings!**_

_**Here it is! My first story, I have read over it several times so if there are any spelling mistakes please forgive me!**_

_**For future reference, there will be no set time in particular for my stories and I won't create much of a plot as I get bored and give up pretty easily! Therefore, the stories will be short and pretty much just a "whump-without-plot" type thing.**_

_**OK, I'm nervous about this! oooh. Please R&R and tell me if you liked it. Constructive criticism is appreciated, we must learn by our mistakes :)**_

_**Oh, and I want to say a big thank you to 'ImJustTired' ! cheers, m'dear. I honestly don't think I would have had the confidence to write without your help and suggestions! *hugs***_

_**If anyone is reading this, you obviously like whump, so go and read her stories people! (after you've read this one, of course)**_

_**OK, I'll shut up now, sorry**_

XXX

He was getting close to something here, he could feel it! Not long after the strange alien ship appeared right next to the station, that he and Jadzia beamed on board. He had to admit, he was a little disappointed in what they found. The entire ship seemed empty, no engine room, no computer panels, nothing! That was until they stumbled upon something, literally. They were both walking through the corridors when Dax tripped and nearly fell if it wasn't for Julian's quick reflexes. Bending down to pick whatever it was off the floor; Julian was surprised to find it ice cold and weighing next to nothing. Neither of them had any idea what it was and seeing as there appeared to be no-one on the ship to ask if they could examine it, they took it with them back to the station.

Hails to the ship lead to dead ends, no response whatsoever. It was beginning to get frustrating for the crew of DS9, especially Dax and Bashir. After doing all the experiments and tests they could think of, they decided to take a break in the Replimat and have a few drinks.

"Maybe it's some sort of communications device?" Jadzia asked as she took a sip of her Raktajino.

"hmm… it could be I suppose, but what would a ship with no crew be wanting with a communications device. Besides, judging by the scans we took, there is nothing about it which resembles _any _kind of device."

Jadzia could tell Julian was getting stressed out now, the way the gulped down his Tarkalean Tea was evident that he just wanted to know what the strange thing was.

She was just about to offer another theory, when Julian's eyes suddenly widened. He looked straight at her in shock and ran out of the Replimat as if he saw a ghost. She called after him but he was already gone, presumably to the Infirmary. Jadzia finished her drink and walked after him.

XXX

Julian sprinted all the way to the Infirmary, he had a really good idea of what the object was, he just needed to do one more scan to be sure. When he mentioned that the thing they found doesn't resemble any sort of device, he thought what else it could have been and nearly choked on his drink when he thought of something so obvious. It could simply be an ornament, or even a handmade model made by a child.

The results came in; he slumped in his chair and smiled. The scan revealed finger prints and skin cells imbedded in the artefact, which came to reason that it was, in fact, handmade. He felt a feeling of relief at knowing that this "device" wasn't going to compromise the station, as well as triumph for figuring the puzzle out, but he also felt guilty for taking it away. He wanted to send it back to the ship, but the ship was abandoned, surely. Nothing was aboard apart from this ornament. Maybe the person who made it is wounded and stuck somewhere, or maybe they didn't want to be found.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't hear the doors to the Infirmary open and close. He was thinking of every possibility he could think of, he didn't even notice that someone was slowly approaching him from behind. He jumped when he felt someone grab him by the back of the hair and pull his head backwards. As the realisation of the attack came to his mind, it was too late. His head was being projected forward until his face contacted hard with his work desk. He was stunned and he began to feel blood pouring from his nose, it felt broken, he could hardly breathe through it. Then his attacker proceeded with the attack, he felt his chair being turned round to face his assailant. He was so dizzy, everything was spinning around him, he couldn't make out the face and couldn't see the fist that was quickly approaching his face. A sharp pain moved across his right cheek as the knuckles broke his skin. Barely had he had time to comprehend what had just happened, that the attacker continued hitting him, again and again.

He felt himself being pulled from his chair by his collar and shoved face first onto the floor. He instinctively curled up protecting his head, but his attacker was more interested in his stomach, kicking it with all his might until he felt ribs crack and break and Julian cried out in pain. He gave one more hard kick in the stomach for good measure and strolled out of the Infirmary.

Julian was left in a bruised and bloody heap on the floor, blood seeping from his many wounds and swiftly lost consciousness.

XXX

"I think it was meant as a warning"

Jadzia Dax was standing in front of the Commanders desk with her hands clasped behind her back, a look of sadness and confusion on her face.

Commander Sisko slowly rose up from his seat, he could not grasp why _that _kind of beating would be simply seen as a "warning", it was brutal. He wanted, no _needed_ to know who did this to his Chief Medical Officer

"Warning about what?"

Jadzia looked up at him with sad eyes, before she began pacing angrily back and forth across Sisko's office

"Julian and I were working on that relic we found, the one from that deserted ship. We were both having a break in the Replimat and started talking about different theories, when all of a sudden Julian near enough jumped up from his seat." She stopped pacing and gave a little chuckle "You should have seen the look across his face, he looked utterly shocked, and excited! He ran back to the infirmary, leaving me alone to grasp what just happened."

Sisko slowly nodded his head, his question still not answered.

"Do you know what he thought about that made him run back so suddenly?"

Jadzia shrugged her shoulders

"I have no idea, Benjamin. We were just talking about different possibilities about what the object was. Something one of us had said obviously made him think of something, by the time I made it to the Infirmary, I saw him there…"

Jadzia had to close her eyes as a tear slowly ran down her cheek. She remembered it so vividly

XXX

_She was walking to the Infirmary, intrigued as to what caused Julian to sprint away leaving her to pay for the drinks. _

_As she turned the last corner before her destination, someone violently barged past her, causing her to hit the wall._

_"Excuse me!?" she exclaimed_

_The person just kept walking with their head down, she had no idea who they were or what species they were from, but they were definitely strong. She wanted to confront them but she decided to continue with her original plan. Infirmary._

_She approached the doors and strolled in, she couldn't see anyone._

_"Quiet night" she mused to herself._

_Walking to Julian's office, she almost collapsed with shock._

_Julian, her good friend of nearly 2 years, was lying sprawled on his back, blood covering a good proportion of his face, his nose gushing blood. His jumpsuit was ripped, revealing deep purple bruising on his chest and abdomen._

_Jadzia sprinted to him and dropped to her knees. Reaching out a shaky hand, she checked his neck for a pulse. She found a very weak one and sighed with relief. He was breathing through his mouth, which probably meant his nose was broken. Judging by the amount of blood coming from his nose, she would bet on it. She tapped her combadge and made the necessary calls to OPs._

_While waiting and murmuring soothing things to Julian's unconscious figure, her gaze moved up to his desk, a PADD he was obviously working on was smashed to pieces, with blood on it. She looked back at her friends face, noticing little pieces of glass on his face and blanched when she knew he must have had his face smashed against it. _

_She heard the infirmary doors open for the medical and security personnel. When she turned to see, she noticed writing on the wall. Big black letters spelling out "DO NOT TAKE THINGS THAT DO NOT BELONG TO YOU"_

_She instantly knew what this meant and was not surprised to see the sample missing from its container. She left Julian in the good hands of his medical staff, informed Sisko and made her way to his office_

XXX

She tore herself back to the present. Looking at Sisko.

"Obviously we inadvertently took something that meant a great deal to someone. Then that someone somehow came aboard and took it back, while leaving a message behind."

Sisko angrily shook his head, he was so angry, and above all, confused.

"I'm going to the Infirmary, Old Man. I want to hear what Julian remembers"

He marched out of his office with Jadzia close behind.

"I doubt he'll be awake Benjamin, he was seriously injured. Moderate concussion, broken nose, 6 broken ribs, 4 cracked and internal bleeding. I doubt his medical staff will have roused him from unconsciousness just yet. Can you imagine just what kind of patient he will be? He'll be saying his never felt better as soon as he wakes up!"

Her attempt at light humour succeeded in bringing a smile to the Commanders face. Julian must be okay, otherwise they would have informed him of complications. They entered the turbolift and stated their destination.

When they made it to the entrance to the Infirmary, Sisko braced himself for the worse. However, when he entered through the doors he was greeted by Nurse Jabara. She offered him a tired smile and lead them to where Julian lay.

"He pulled through the surgery without any complications. He's sleeping right now and will be sleeping for at least 8 more hours."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sisko said his thanks to the nurse and looked at Jadzia, seeing a smile so wide, he was surprised there was room on her face to fit it on.

They both looked down at Julian, sleeping peacefully; nothing that revealed his injuries was left. Dax reached out her hand and gently brushed his hair, although she was thrilled he was going to be alright, she resented the fact that whoever attacked him so brutally got away with it.

By the time they realised what was happening, the assailant disappeared, probably through some sort of transporter that beamed them straight to the ship they found and went to warp. It was near enough impossible to track where they went. She was furious at how they escaped justice, but her feelings of happiness and relief that Julian was safe outweighed her fury.

Julian was going to be alright.

END

_**Told you it was short, not even 2k words! What did you think? I've got quite a few more ideas coming and will probably add a new story once a week! **_

_**Oh, and if anyone wants to suggest an idea, please PM me or leave a review**_

_**How about a sneak preview of my next whump-fest?**_

_**"The alien leaped off the biobed and pinned Julian to the wall by grasping his shoulders in an iron grip. Julian tried to struggle but to no avail, the alien was just too strong. The scaled alien slowly opened its mouth, revealing it's bright green tongue as it slowly stretched out towards Julian..." **_

_**oooooooh, I'm going to leave a snippet of a new story at the end of every chapter. 'Cause I'm nice like that :)**_

_**See you next time, folks.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**I couldn't wait a week to publish this, I found something cool! I found out that I can see how many people have viewed my story and what countries they come from! **_

_**Someone in the Philippines viewed my last chapter! Thank you, stranger. You're so cool!**_

_**Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't own Star Trek *shocker***_

XXX

"The ship is about to blow!"

O'Brien was trying desperately to lock onto the alien they detected and beam them straight to the Infirmary. After many attempts at hailing, they received no response and put it down to the fact that the alien must be unconscious.

After what seemed like an eternity for Miles, he finally managed to get a lock and transport the alien straight to the Infirmary. He just wanted to double check the alien was definitely aboard and in the safe hands of Julian. After calling the Infirmary, he sighed and lent back in his chair; that was a close one. The ship didn't explode, but rather _implode, _the entire ship shrunk until nothing was left but empty space, a painful way to die.

XXX

In the Infirmary, Julian was looking down at the alien with a look of interest etched on his face. This alien was nothing like any other he's ever seen; it was roughly 7 foot tall with black scales covering it from head to toe and light purple feathers where Julian's own hair would be.

After they received the patient, they deposited him on the biobed and Julian immediately scanned it with his tricorder. After finding nothing but a bang on the head, his nurses dispatched and continued with their own work. Two hours passed and the Infirmary only held Julian, one of his nurses and the alien. He continued to run scans of its anatomy and physiology, it was always so interesting to scan new alien life forms, this one in particular as it seemed to have a very unusual tongue. It appeared that the tongue could extend out of the body to roughly one metre. He checked the readings above the aliens' biobed and once he decided that the being would still be unconscious for a while, he gingerly opened its mouth to see if he could get a better look at the tongue.

At this, its eyes flew open, much to Julian's surprise; he jumped back, hands raised in a friendly manner. The alien leaped off the biobed and pinned Julian to the wall, grasping his shoulders. Julian tried to struggle but to no avail, the alien was just too strong. The scaled alien opened its mouth, revealing it's bright green tongue as it slowly stretched out towards Julian. Bashir's own mouth opened to reason with the alien in front of him, trying to explain what was going one and that he was safe. Before he could bring forth one syllable, the tongue shot out and entered his mouth, it all happened so fast and just as his mind could comprehend what was happening, he felt the tongue travel down his throat, down his trachea. He tried to struggle even more against the strong grip on his shoulders; he couldn't breathe, couldn't scream or make any other noise. He was frightened, this alien was killing him. He could feel the tongue slowly move inside his throat and travel downwards. He felt so sick! This foreign object was inside his body, he felt violated.

He continued to feel the tongue move downwards, he wanted to gag. The tongue finally stopped its movements and Julian felt it deep inside his stomach, it was wriggling inside him. The tongue began vibrating slightly until he felt what seemed like water, but thicker, erupt from the end, right inside him.

He gave one last attempt to struggle, but he could no longer see around him, his vision was becoming dim from lack of oxygen and in no time at all, he was unconscious, the tongue still inside him.

When Julian's eyes rolled up in their sockets and his head dropped to the side, the alien stopped its movements and extracted its tongue from Julian's throat. As soon as the alien let go of his shoulders, Julian collapsed to the floor, a strange thick substance slowly leaking out the side of his mouth. The alien stood on the spot staring at the unconscious being in front of him. When the alien knelt down beside the human, the doors to the Infirmary opened. The last nurse in the Infirmary entered the room to inform Julian her shift was over and gasped in shock. She saw her boss, pale and unconscious with the alien kneeling beside him, he looked straight at her with a look of shock and fear on his face.

"I-I-I" the alien stuttered, pausing to take a deep breath and close its eyes, trying to control its fear. "I-I'm sorry, he s-startled me. Th-th-the last thing I r-remembered was hitting m-my head, and then I awaken to s-see a strange alien over me. I-I'm afraid my n-natural instincts t-t-took over and I attacked him" It was near enough crying now.

The nurse gulped and slowly approached them, her hands raised in a non-hostile way. She knelt beside Julian and checked his pulse, only, there wasn't one. She put her hand on his chest and couldn't feel his chest moving with breath. She looked at the alien with tears in her eyes

"I need to put him on the biobed, will you help me?"

The alien nodded and helped her pick the unconscious human and place him on the bed.

"I'm a-afraid you'll find his airway blocked with a thick s-substance and poison in his system. I meant to k-kill him, it is nearly impossible to revive him"

The nurse, Harriet, refused to accept this; she knew Julian would try everything he could to save her if she was the one lying on the biobed. She ran to the equipment storage area and rummaged through trying to find what she was looking for. Harriet came back with a long tube and told the alien to open Julian's mouth, which he did. She carefully inserted the tube down Julian's throat and began pumping on his chest, trying to start his breathing again.

The alien felt disappointed that this woman didn't listen to him, he _did _say it was incredibly unlikely the man will be revived, why wouldn't she accept that?

"P-please, you are just tiring yourself; I released a substance, a poison, straight into his body. This substance stops all of the organs in the body from working, to revive him now… It is _impossible. _I'm s-so sorry, if I could reverse time, I would. I feel awful, it was instinct, and I thought he was going to h-hurt me"

All the time he spoke, Harriet just kept pumping on Julian's chest, not really paying attention to the aliens little speech. She feared she wouldn't be able to revive the young man, so she just pumped and pumped and pumped.

Suddenly, the machine picked up a weak heartbeat and she smiled triumphantly at the alien who looked completely dumbfounded. Harriet continued pumping until the heartbeat got stronger and Julian gasped for breath. She smiled and picked up a hypospray and deposited the drug into his system. Julian should sleep soundly now.

She wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand and looked at the alien with a smile which slowly turned into a frown

"He should be fine, he's breathing and he's got a heartbeat, but the poison is still in his system. You said you released this substance Mr…"

The alien was still staring at Julian, absolutely shocked that the man had survived. He has never met his species before, maybe they have a stronger immune system than the aliens that he knows of. He shook his head and looked at Harriet, seeing a face that was clearly waiting for an answer.

"Uh…"

Harriet could understand that he wasn't paying attention. According to him, Julian should have died, now he was breathing and his heart beating. It must be a complete shock for him. She smiled and repeated her last statement and question.

"Um, Fruir, Deris Fruir. My species are known as the Hyliun, I was on my ship, doing my daily travels, you see I'm a courier. I deliver things to people, I was just on one of my rounds when suddenly, my ship, the Tuik, was hit by something that wasn't picked up by my sensors. The next thing I know" He gulped and took a deep breath "This alien I've never encountered before is staring right at me! So I tried to save myself and get rid of the threat in front of me. You see, the Hyliun have an organ that is much like most aliens tongues and doubles for a defence weapon. When we are cornered or scared, we grow stronger, incredibly stronger. In some instances we can pick up threats or objects five times our own body weight! Anyway, we insert the organ down enemy's throats, right into the stomach and release the poison, they first lose conscious from lack of air and soon die from the poison afterwards."

He stopped his babbling and saw that Harriet wanted to know more, she slightly inclined her head and raised her eyebrows, meaning for him to continue.

"When I attacked…" he paused and looked at her

"Uh, Doctor Julian Bashir" Harriet supplied

"Julian. I saw the look in his eyes, he was scared, so scared. But I could sense he was not a threat, sadly, I realised too late. Now that you have revived him, which was absolutely _amazing, _we need to give him the antidote, which is useless for the deceased but can save the life of a dying victim. I just need access to your medicines and equipment and I'll have the antidote ready in about three hours."

Harriet was almost overwhelmed with joy and she had to mentally stop herself from hugging this Hyliun. He was, after all, the one who got Julian in this state in the first place. She agreed with a huge smile and showed Fruir to where the medicines were, on the way informing Sisko what has happened.

Sisko arrived about ten minutes after he received the call with Jadzia, Miles and Odo. Fruir introduced himself and told them everything he had already told Harriet. Now, only Miles and Jadzia remained. Odo left first, wanting a full report when Doctor Bashir was 100% recovered. Sisko left next, he had a station to run, after all.

After what ended up being only 2 hours, Fruir entered where the two officers were waiting nervously and smiled.

"Um. I am so sorry about all of this. I feel so guilty. I've given Julian the antidote; however, after the length of time the poison was in his system, he'll be unconscious for about a week to fully recover. He _is _incredibly lucky he survived. Now I believe this _Odo_ wanted to talk to me, and seeing as I have no idea how to contact him…" He let the sentence trail off, looking at the two officers

Jadzia was too preoccupied with the overwhelming happiness she felt to even think about calling Odo; she just stood there with _the _most genuine smile Fruir had ever seen.

It was Miles who made the call, he was incredibly relieved that his best friend was going to make it, but at the same time, he was upset he wouldn't be able to talk to him for a whole week!

XXX

Odo entered the Infirmary shortly after and began his interview with Fruir while Harriet informed Jadzia and Miles that it's alright for them to see Julian.

Hearing the steady beeping of Julian's heartbeat on the monitor, Jadzia sat down next to her unconscious friend and spoke quietly in his ear

"You have excellent staff Julian; I think you need to promote Nurse Harriet"

Jadzia moved her eyes to where Harriet stood and smiled. Harriet burst out crying; when Miles moved towards her she raised her hand.

"It's OK; I'm just overwhelmed by the whole thing and what you just said, Lieutenant, set me off. I'm OK." She tried to lighten the mood she set "It's going to be a _very _quiet week without him talking all the time."

Miles gave a little chuckle as did Jadzia, who moved her gaze back to Julian

"It's going to be strange not hearing his voice and his babbling."

Miles nodded, silently wishing that the week would hurry up, he would never admit it to Julian, but he _loved _him. As a friend of course, if he ever told Julian that, he'd never hear the end of it. He looked down at his friend and patted him on the shoulder, knowing that he'll be perfectly fine.

XXX

Fruir worked with Miles for 3 days straight trying to find out how he ended up right next to the station. Going through sensor logs, they found out it was a spacial anomaly which they could simply create themselves.

After giving Fruir permission to take a shuttlecraft and go home through the manmade anomaly, Sisko asked if he wanted to stay until Julian awoke. He politely declined, stating how he didn't want Julian to panic. The truth was that he didn't think he could face looking at his eyes, the last time he saw them, he saw such fear there. He wished that all of this never happened, he was a simple courier, and he wasn't meant to scare people.

Fruir said his thanks for the crews' hospitality and apologised once more for the entire incident and left on his shuttle back home to Hylius.

XXX

Julian regained consciousness six days after the incident and after being informed of everything that had happened, was discharged and given three more days' bed rest in his quarters. He reluctantly agreed, knowing that he probably would have given his patient the same amount of rest time as well.

He recovered fully and went back to full shifts the following week, much to the glee of Harriet, who was happy to see his bright face and hear his voice as he took over his Infirmary from his temporary replacement.

END

_**I'm a bit annoyed at how I couldn't seem to finish this story without talking about Fruir getting home. I shortened it as much as I could!**_

_**PREVIEW TIME!**_

_**"Julian was blearily starting to get up on his hands and knees, but before he could stand up, someone behind him hoisted him up by his shoulders and held him with a vice like grip. He tried to struggle against the bruising hold but they were just too strong. He held his aching head up high to where he assumed one Bajoran stood, when the lights turned on. He squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden brightness. When he opened his eyes he found four Bajorans staring at him with contempt written on their faces. His shoulders were momentarily let go, only for his arms to be twisted behind him painfully."**_

_**The next story will be the Garak/Bashir one, but, like I said, not even a kiss is mentioned.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**I just couldn't wait to post this, after reading the reviews and seeing how many people have been viewing it!**_

_**I really appreciate all the support, guys**_

_**So, this is the G/B one**_

_***Don't own Star Trek***_

XXX

Julian and Garak were sitting in Quarks enjoying an early lunch. This was their third lunch as a couple and they were discussing how to keep their relationship a secret for the time being. Not wanting any complications from their friends and family.

A Bajoran walked past the couple and heard something he _really _didn't think he'd hear. He heard the distinct British accent telling the man sitting in front of him that he loved him. The Bajoran stopped dead and turned around to see Julian gaze dreamily in Garak's direction. He liked Julian, he was a nice Doctor and he didn't want him to date such a dangerous creature. Knowing that he and his friends could not take on the Cardassian, he decided that it would be safer to confront the Doctor instead.

XXX

As Julian entered his quarters, he immediately sensed something was wrong. The lights failed to come on upon his arrival.

"Computer, lights"

Nothing, not even the tell-tale chirp that it understood the command.

He thought maybe it was just a simple malfunction, that was until he heard what were definitely footsteps getting louder.

"Who's there?" He was beginning to panic now

"Sorry, Doctor. I'm afraid your _lover _can't protect you at the moment"

The voice came from right behind him, a man by the sounds of it. He spun round only to receive a blow to the face. He staggered back and held his throbbing cheek.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" If he could see anything he may well have fought back, but he had no idea where his attacker went, let alone manage to defend himself

"_We _are here to teach you of your wrong doings. We have no quarrel with your lover being male, however, your choice of _species_… is in error"

Julian was starting to see what was going on. These Bajoran's, he had no idea how many there were, disapproved of his relationship with the plain and simple tailor.

"It's none of your business who my lover is!" He was angry at their accusation that they had even _gotten_ that far in their relationship. "We have only been together for a week! How could you possibly even know…"

Before he could finish his argument, he felt something hit him in the back of the head. He fell to the floor, stunned.

"Cardassian are SCUM! We believe you are a good doctor, Bashir, but you are obviously not thinking straight. We just want you to understand how this relationship will turn out! Cardassians are well known for their abusiveness! What we'll do to you today will be a lot less worse than what _Garak _would do to you once he's bored with his little Human!" It was a different Bajoran man speaking now, his voice raised enough to be threatening but quiet as to not be heard from passers-by.

Julian was blearily starting to get up on his hands and knees, but before he could stand up, someone behind him hoisted him up by his shoulders and held him with a vice like grip. He tried to struggle against the bruising hold but they were just too strong. He held his aching head up high to where he assumed one Bajoran stood, when the lights turned on. He squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden brightness. When he opened his eyes he found four Bajorans staring at him with contempt written on their faces. His shoulders were momentarily let go, only for his arms to be twisted behind him painfully.

"Garak would never do that! It was difficult for him to admit his feelings, he would not hurt me. I'm scared for you! When he finds out about this, you'll want to be far _far _away!"

Julian was raising his voice with each word and was just about to give another threat when his arms were twisted even more and he felt his left shoulder dislocate. All at once, he screamed at the excruciating pain, but was cut off by a jab of an elbow to his stomach. The Bajoran would not let go of his throbbing arm.

"You actually believe that?" the Bajoran, the first one who spoke to him judging by his voice, wore a green robe that concealed everything but his face. He spoke and gave a little chuckle "You are even more naïve than we thought. That Cardassian could kill you with one twist of his hand. We are trying to make you see this, and after hearing your reluctance to see the obvious…"

Green One signalled to another Bajoran, wearing the same robe but in red. Red One came walking right up to Julian and sunk his fist in the Doctors midsection, causing an explosive _whooomph _to erupt from Julian's mouth. When Julian was doubled over, his head was lifted up by the back of his hair to force his gaze back to Red One.

He would not let these Bajoran's change his mind on his choice of partner, no matter what they did to him. He spat in Red Ones face and soon regretted it when he was punched so hard in the face he felt two teeth dislodge and he tasted blood.

It didn't stop there

The one holding his arms let go and walked in front of him. Julian stood swaying, his dislocated arm hanging uselessly at his side. This Bajoran standing in front him was wearing a blue robe.

"That wasn't very nice, spitting in my friends face" Blue One taunted

Julian gathered up all his courage and looked him straight in the eyes

"It wasn't meant to be!" He wheezed, blood slowly spilling from his mouth

Blue One gave a chuckle and brought his knee up, hard, to Julian's groin, causing him to sink down to his knees in pain. Blue One kicked him in the side of the head and Julian crumpled all the way down to floor, lying on his stomach. Blue One knelt in front him, a look of mock concern on his face, which quickly turned into a cruel smile as he revealed a knife he had hidden in his robe and brought it down and pierced Julian's back.

Julian was slowly getting his vision back from the kick when he saw Blue One smile and he felt a horrible sharp pain in the middle of his back. He yelled out, trying to get help! He was truly sure they were going to kill him now! He felt another stab of pain, in his upper back this time and blood erupted from his mouth when he tried to scream! It hurt! He was sure he was crying, he didn't want to die like this, so brutally.

His last thought before he sunk into unconsciousness was that he desperately wished Garak would not blame himself for all of this.

Blue One stabbed him on more time, in the right shoulder and left the blade there. He could see the blood from the three wounds rapidly congealing blood. This _Cardie Whore _would soon be dead and he felt surprisingly happy.

"Let's get out of here" Green One hissed and looked at Blue One with an incredibly angry look

"You were not meant to do that! You'll be arrested for murder! Utter FOOL!" he hissed

"I acted on impulse, they'll never know it was even a Bajoran!" he argued back

They all strolled out of Julian's quarters and left the Doctor to bleed to death

XXX

Garak was excited. He had a proposal for Julian and he couldn't wait to tell him. He was walking towards his partners quarters and pressed the chime. When there was no answer he frowned, Julian told him he'll be in his quarters at this hour with a romantic dinner prepared. He couldn't even smell any food.

Feeling very worried when he called out Julian's name and received nothing in response, he entered the door code that Julian very lovingly told him a few days ago. He walked in and nearly collapsed to the floor.

His partner, his _best friend _looked dead. He had a knife handle protruding from his back and there was a large puddle of blood pooling around him, his clothes had gone red from the amount of blood. He was so pale and was bleeding from his nose and mouth.

Garak could not tell if he was breathing or not and ran to his side, careful not to touch the knife. He placed a shaky hand to Julian's throat and felt an indescribable amount of relief at the pulse, it was weak but it was there.

He ran to Julian's computer panel and initiated a site to site transport for himself and Julian to the Infirmary. When they dematerialised he shouted at the top of his lungs for help, which he received. In no time at all, Julian was placed on the biobed onto his stomach and Garak reluctantly left him in the tender and safe hands of the medical staff.

XXX

Julian was sitting up in the biobed propped up by pillows and held a data PADD in his right hand, his left arm was still a bit stiff.

After he regained consciousness, Odo had practically begun his questioning on who attacked him. Only after Garak threatened him did Odo leave with a _humph _and walked out letting the Doctor know he wanted a report soon.

He looked through the PADD that held pictures and names of all the Bajoran's that came aboard the station trying to recognise his attackers. He came across the three men he saw the faces of but there were at least two more he didn't get a look at. Odo found the three Bajoran's and they confessed and gave him the names of the other two.

Now he was reviewing his injuries he sustained, the most serious was the three stab wounds on his back, _funny, _he thought, _I only felt two. _He also had 2 cracked ribs, a mild concussion and had to have two of his teeth replaced.

Garak was sitting next to him with a smile on his face, he had continuously apologised but he had been quickly shut up by Julian pleading him not to blame himself, it was just a few Bajoran's who were obviously deeply troubled. Garak still felt guilty but didn't say anything in fear of Julian's wrath.

As Julian was reading through another PADD, Garak decided now was good a time as any to tell him his proposal. He gently put his hand over Julian's and put his hand down. Julian looked at him with a look of confusion.

"Julian, I want to suggest something" He quietly stated

"What is it?" Julian replied curiously

"I wanted to suggest this the night you were attacked; now that you are on the mend I wanted to tell you that I've been thinking about our relationship. We have been friends for a long time, and only just started a romantic relationship. I have to say I'd like for us to go to the next step…"

Julian stared at his partner, _soon to be lover, _with a huge smile on his face

"I'd like that, I really would!" He was excited, after every kiss they shared together he always wished they could have gone further but feared it was too soon in the relationship. He was truly happy.

Garak beamed at him "Thank you, when you're feeling better I'll take you for a romantic evening and end the night in my quarters."

Julian raised an eyebrow "I feel fine now. I think I remember hearing that I'll be released today" He suavely said

"But, I don't have any reservations…"

"Garak! We've had meals many times. I just want us to spend the night together! Please"

Garak smiled and hugged Julian with such gentleness Julian could not believe that the Bajoran's could have ever suggested he would hit him.

"The night will be ours. I love you, Elim"

End

_**awwww**_

_**I really enjoyed writing this one!**_

_**AMM, how about a preview of your idea, eh?**_

_**"Sisko was surprisingly strong for someone who had a concussion and a fever "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about!"**_

_**"Don't play innocent with me, Doctor!" he yelled as he pushed Julian away, causing him to stagger back. Sisko jumped off the bed and approached Julian.**_

_**"Captain, you're not thinking clearly now! Calm down!" Julian was trying desperately to get the Captain to see he was not a threat**_

_**"I haven't thought more clearly in all my life, Doctor" He had cornered Julian, now. Towering over him with threatening eyes. "I remembered"..."**_

_**ooooooooooooh, I hope you liked it :D**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Well hello again, Julian fans**_

_**On my first chapter I told people if they had any suggestions for a new story. AMM had a really good idea and I couldn't wait to write it, I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have any time to update!**_

_**I hope you like it**_

_***And for some mad reason, I haven't been given the rights to Star Trek. If I did, I would start a DS9 spin off* **_

XXX

"We're losing helm control, sir!" Julian had to shout over the sparks and alarms that were going off inside the little shuttle.

Not long after he and Sisko left the planet, systems started losing power. It just suddenly happened, no spacial anomalies were to blame, they put it down to just a simple malfunction.

Just when Sisko was going to answer, everything stopped. The alarms stopped, the sparks, all was silent apart from the two occupant's heavy breathing. Frowning, Sisko tapped on his panel, trying to find out what had happened.

"According to this, everything is fine…" He looked at Julian, who was on his own computer panels, trying to get the shuttle moving

"I don't have helm control, Sir. We're adrift in space. I'll send a distress signal" He tapped a few times and turned his chair to face Sisko. "Now what?"

"I suggest we try and repair…" as he was talking, he noticed a high pitch whine, emitting from his console, barely had he time to turn to take a look, that a shower of sparks knocked him from his seat. He landed a few metres away, unconscious

Julian immediately ran to his side, checking for any injury.

XXX

Sisko awoke in comfort; he was on a bed, with a blanket over him. He felt a slight pressure on his head and moved his hand to investigate, feeling a bandage over his left temple. Frowning, he got up and walked to the front of the shuttle, seeing Julian attempting to repair damaged consoles.

"Doctor?" Julian turned round to face Sisko with a look of surprise

"Sir, you should be resting. The medkit was ruined and I couldn't treat your injury properly. Sit down" Julian got up from where he was sitting and moved over to Sisko, pointing to an empty seat.

"What happened?" Sisko asked as Julian was checking his bandage

"I'm not surprised you don't remember, Sir. The entire shuttle went dead, we're adrift in space. I sent a distress signal out and shortly after, your console exploded. You banged your head on the floor but that's all I could detect without a medical tricorder. Are you in any pain, I couldn't ask before as you wouldn't have answered"

He didn't remember any of it, he gently shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember _anything at all. _"No pain, Doctor. Just a bit confused"

Julian smiled and walked back to where he was originally, starting on repairs again "No wonder, Sir, you were out for two hours!"

_Two hours? _He remembered something, something bad. He only saw images, Jake! He saw Jake being taken away from him…

_"JAKE!" He was running after the hooded figure that held his unconscious son over their shoulder. He already lost his wife, he would be damned if he lost his son as well!_

_He continued to run, but his legs were beginning to turn to jelly, he couldn't keep up. "JAKE!" _

"Sir?" Sisko jumped and stared at Julian, who was still by the helm. "Are you alright?"

"Jake?!" Sisko asked, his voice shaking "Where's Jake?"

_Jake? _Julian was puzzled "Sir, Jake's back on the station, you saw him right before he left"

"No! I saw him being taken away!" Sisko stood up and slammed his fist on the console "What happened to Jake?!"

Julian jumped when Sisko hit the console; he was delirious, if only he had a hypospray to sedate him. "Sir, you're confused. Jake wasn't taken away; he's safe and sound on the station." _It must have been a nightmare he had; now he can't tell reality from fantasy_

When Sisko made a move to approach Julian, he collapsed

XXX

_"Jake!" He mustered all his strength to drag himself towards the figure, by the time he got there, he saw Jake being handed over to a Borg Drone. "No!" He tried to stand but couldn't, he just had to lay on the ground, unable to prevent his son being taken away from him_

XXX

Julian was still trying his best to fix the console, but he wasn't able to get helm control or engines back online. He tried everything he could think of, but still nothing.

If Sisko wasn't unconscious and completely out of it, he would have asked for help. Now he just had to sit by and wait for rescue, bored. He thought he'd check on Sisko, make sure he was still asleep.

XXX

_"The boy will be assimilated" the Borg carried Jake away, leaving the hooded figure alone. _

_The figure was too preoccupied with the Borg, that he didn't notice Sisko drag himself closer to him, grabbing hold of his ankle and yanking hard. The hooded figure landed on the floor next to Sisko and tried to put up a fight, in the process, knocking his hood off. _

_Sisko's eyes widened at the face in front of him, hazel eyes stared up at him and he smiled a cruel smile before shoving Sisko away and running off into the distance._

_"I'll get you, Julian!" Sisko vowed_

XXX

Julian walked into the room Sisko was sleeping in, seeing him thrash around in bed, covered in sweat. Julian ran over to get some water and dabbed some on the Captain's face, trying to get his fever down. "Captain, I need you to open your eyes for me"

XXX

_He heard that distinct British voice echo all around him; he wanted to make him suffer! How dare he take his only son away! He would make him regret his decision of helping the Borg._

XXX

Sisko's eyes flew open and saw Julian staring at him. "Sir, how are you feeling?"

"It was you!" Sisko yelled, grabbing a fistful of Julian's uniform and pulling him closer "You gave Jake to the Borg!"

Sisko was surprisingly strong for someone who had a concussion and a fever "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't play innocent with me, Doctor!" he yelled as he pushed Julian away, causing him to stagger back. Sisko jumped off the bed and approached Julian.

"Captain, you're not thinking clearly now! Calm down!" Julian was trying desperately to get the Captain to see he was not a threat

"I haven't thought more clearly in all my life, Doctor" He had cornered Julian, now. Towering over him with threatening eyes. "I remembered"

He had to calm him down, make him understand "Sir, you had a nightmare, it was all a nightmare, Jake is safe on the st…" Sisko's hand shot out and grabbed Julian by the throat, cutting off the rest of his sentence as well as his air

Sisko pulled Julian towards him, all the time keeping sufficient pressure on his throat, Julian's eyes began watering and he clawed at the hand that was strangling him, but Sisko didn't even notice. He dragged him to the back of the shuttle. "Do not lie to me, Doctor! I saw you! You betrayed me, and for what?" He shook the man in his hand "FOR WHAT?!" He dropped Julian on the floor and watched as he gasped for air.

Julian realised with a sinking feeling that Sisko could not be reasoned with, he was angry, and could _easily _kill him. Giving one last attempt to plead with his Captain, he looked up and was about to speak when Sisko bent down to grab his shoulder and haul him up to his feet

"Where is he?" Sisko demanded before he pushed Julian back against the wall and his head impacted painfully with the metal walls. Sisko let go of him and he slid down the wall, leaving a bloody trail in his wake.

Julian's head was throbbing, the room was spinning and he couldn't bring himself to get up, so he just closed his eyes and hoped Sisko would ignore him for the time being.

Sisko looked down at the Doctor, and watched as his eyes closed. "NO!" He will not let him rest, not for one minute. He once again picked Julian up and shoved him to the floor once more, at this, Julian's eyes opened, he wanted to see where he was landing as to avoid any more damage.

"I knew you were awake, Doctor! Don't lie to me!" he knelt down and pinned Julian down to the floor, he was immobilised, he couldn't protect himself from the blows that were sure to come. "WHERE. IS. MY. SON?" Sisko delivered a violent punch after every word, breaking Julian's skin and splitting his lips, spilling blood down his jumpsuit.

After several more blows to the young man's face, Sisko got off Julian and stepped away. "Well?" he said calmly

Julian was stunned, blood was seeping out his wounds and falling into his eyes, he couldn't see, let alone speak. He just coughed, and winced as a shooting pain hit him in his jaw, it felt dislocated.

"I trusted you, Julian! We all did, how could you do this? What did you get out of it?!" Sisko kicked Julian in the stomach, causing Julian to curl up to protect his ribs "ANSWER ME!" He continued kicking, not caring that Julian's arms were in the way, he only wanted to make the man suffer. He continued kicking until Julian went limp, completely unconscious.

"Just wait until you wake up!" Sisko was so angry, he trusted this man, and he had no idea what had lead Julian to betray him.

He took a step back and threw a hand to his head, things had suddenly gotten distorted and he promptly fainted next to Julian

XXX

Julian awoke to pain, everything _hurt. _He remembered what had happened and tried to remain still, avoiding Sisko from hitting him again.

He couldn't hear anything, not even the tapping of fingers on a computer panel. He slowly opened his eyes, discovering that he could only open _one_; his right eye had swollen shut. He moved his head, very slowly, to see what was going on around him. He saw his Captain, lying unconscious next to him, his bandage had a widening spot of blood on it.

Momentarily forgetting about his injuries, he went to move up, only to cry at the excruciating pain that hit his entire body. Just before he faded in unconsciousness again, he heard Kira's voice, calling their names and stating that they will beam aboard shortly. He kept his eyes open and saw a glimmer of blue at the front of the shuttle, and then everything went black

XXX

Kira and Miles beamed aboard the shuttle, puzzled as to why Bashir or Sisko didn't respond to their hails. Seeing the obvious outline of a body, they ran to the back and saw their commanding officer lying unconscious, a bloody bandage on his head, but otherwise he looked unharmed. Kira moved her gaze to the other body, the Doctor, looked exponentially worse. His entire face was a mass of blood and bruises and he was lying curled up, hugging his stomach tightly.

Bringing out her tricorder, she scanned him and blanched at the readouts. He was bad, and it would take nearly a day to get back to DS9. She didn't expect any of them to have such horrifically bad injuries so didn't see reason to bring a medic with them. Julian sounded fine when he sent the distress signal out.

Asking the computer to beam the four officers to the other shuttle, they immediately set course for the station, maximum speed.

Miles helped Kira carefully move Julian to one the beds and made him as comfortable as possible, giving him a hypospray to ease the pain.

Moving to Sisko to check his injuries, she found blood on his knuckles. Taking a closer look, she found no visible wound, she didn't even want to consider how blood ended up on his knuckles. He would _never _do anything to hurt members of his crew, surely.

XXX

They were due back to the station in fifteen minutes. Both Julian and Sisko were still unconscious, although Miles predicted the latter will be awake before they reached the station.

He wondered back to the back of the shuttle, leaving Kira with the helm. He walked over to Julian, they had cleaned his face but his nose still spilled blood down his face. He was so pale, and Miles could hear his breathing was laboured. He couldn't do anything to help his friend, he felt so useless.

Sighing, he went to check on Sisko, only to see two brown eyes staring at him with a questionable look.

"Chief? What happened?" He rasped

"Sir, we found yours and Julian's shuttle adrift in space after Julian sent a distress signal. He's bad; we're waiting to get him to the infirmary. We don't _really _know what happened to him" He did know, he didn't want to admit it but the blood on Sisko's knuckles made mute testimony to what had happened to Julian

"He's alive? Don't you know what he did?" Sisko's voice was slowly rising with each word

Miles was confused, what did Julian supposedly do? "What did he do?"

"Jake! It was him, Chief! It was HIM that gave Jake to the Borg!" he slowly raised up and stared at Julian's still form with contempt

"Jake's fine, Sir. He's on the station. You saw him right before you left for the mission. I think you banged your head"

Sisko stared at O'Brien with confusion on his face "What do you mean? I saw Doctor Bashir take Jake and give him to the Borg…" he frowned and closed his eyes

"Jake is safe and sound, Sir. You've got a bandage on your head and looking at the tricorder; you've got a concussion and had a fever. I think you were delirious" Miles was trying his best to make the Captain understand

Sisko _was_ beginning to understand, now. He remembered saying goodbye to Jake, his console exploding, Julian trying to treat him, and then he felt a feeling of guilt. "Oh… Oh… GOD. What have I done? He was trying to explain to me but I wouldn't listen! What did I do to him?" He rose up and walked to Julian's side.

"You can't blame yourself, Sir. You were injured, had a fever, you weren't thinking straight…" Miles would have said more but Sisko turned round and gave him a look of ferocious anger

"What did I do to him?" He ordered, still staring the chief

"Er, head injury, broken jaw, internal bleeding and cracked ribs… but like I said, Sir. You weren't thinking straight" O'Brien said

Sisko nodded sadly and turned his gaze back to Julian, "I see…" thinking about his injuries, he was upset at how _he _could have done such serious damage with his bare hands "When do we arrive at the station?" he inquired

Just then Kira called over to them, saying that they were approaching the station now and Julian was to be beamed straight to the Infirmary

XXX

Jake had met his father when he stepped out of the airlock and greeted him with a hug. "Are you alright, dad?

Sisko just nodded, hugging his son close. He could not believe that he actually thought Julian would do something that horrible

He released his son and looked into his eyes, before turning to make his way for the Infirmary to be treated himself

XXX

When Sisko entered the Infirmary, he was greeted by nurses and doctors operating on Julian. He didn't want to disrupt them so he just propped himself on one of the biobeds and closed his eyes

XXX

When he awoke, his head was a lot clearer; he opened his eyes and saw one of Julian's nurses hovering over the biobed next to him. Moving his gaze down, he discovered it was Julian on the biobed, his head and jaw wrapped in a bandage.

Seeing the Captain was awake, the nurse explained to him that Julian's injuries were all taken care of and that they had proof Sisko wasn't himself when he attacked the Doctor.

"Thank you, will he remember anything?"

The nurse frowned "He did sustain a lot of injuries to his face and head; I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't remember anything past the shuttle leaving the station. We could try and help him remem…" She was cut off by Sisko's booming voice

"No! I don't want him to remember what I did, and I don't want the incident brought up ever again. Make something up! Please!" His pleads were so genuine, the nurse just nodded and informed the rest of the medical staff of the Captains wishes

XXX

Two days later Julian woke up, indeed not remembering anything whilst on the shuttle. His staff told him he had banged his head in the shower. They added the true injuries and how he sustained them into the medical logs, embedded as so he could never read them

END

_**Do you like it, I really hope you do! I had two drafts but this one seemed better!**_

_**Let's all applaud AMM for their brilliant idea *I live for the applause, applause, applause...* o.O**_

_**Oh and I doubt Julian couldn't gain access to medical files as he's the f*cking CMO! But let's just all forget that, OK. It's my story *I do what I want!* ;)**_

_**And now for a preview...**_

_**"Julian was laying on his back, his uniform torn to pieces, revealing bruising and bloody wounds up his entire body. There was a bruise on his temple but no blood on his face. His arm was at an angle which suggested it was broken, as was his leg.**_

_**"Julian can you hear me?" Jadzia asked, her voice slightly shaking. He looked awful but at least he was breathing. She could see his chest rising and falling**_

_**She received no response and turned to Kira..."**_

_**MUSHUSHY- I'll get cracking with your story soon, I just need it to be different from my next story, which I wrote before you gave your suggestion. *Thinking time***_


	5. Chapter 5

_**So much for "posting one once a week"! I'm just such a nice person, y'see. -and I haven't got anything to do-**_

_**I just love getting notifications saying I got a new review or PM, especially when I wake up in the morning and people 'in the past' have R&R'd! :D -by 'in the past' I mean they're behind (time)**_

_**And, Mushushy! You made me jealous when you said you live in one of the hottest cities in Australia! RUB IT IT, WHY DON'T YOU! It's horrible in England, now I'm depressed :'(**_

XXX

Kira opened her eyes slowly, trying to remember what happened. Her brain wasn't working, everything she saw was spinning, she had to close her eyes to control her nausea as she attempted to sit up. She laid back down until the feeling of sickness disappeared and risked opening her eyes again. Things stopped spinning and she pushed herself up once more. Kira looked around, they had landed in a forest by the looks of things, trees and shrubs covered a majority of the area. She continued to look and saw Jadzia, lying unconscious a few metres away from her. She attempted to get up but a wave of pain in her ankle prevented her, she gingerly raised her trousers and saw her ankle was black and blue all over. It wasn't at an awkward angle though, so she decided it was just bruised flesh and bone.

Kira hoisted herself up carefully and hopped over to Jadzia and sat down on her knees, calling her name quietly. Jadzia moaned softly and moved her head to the right, revealing a long bruise across her cheek, from her temple to her jaw. Calling her name again, Kira lightly tapped Jadzia on her unbruised cheek trying to awaken her. It worked, her blue eyes opening and quickly closing again. _Probably a slight concussion _Kira thought to herself.

"Dax, are you alright? Are you in any pain?"

Jadzia slowly opened her eyes and had to blink a couple of times to clear her sight. She saw Kira looking down at her with a look of concern on her face.

"You're bleeding" Jadzia stated softly

Kira frowned and slowly put her hand to her face, feeling a small cut on her eyebrow and feeling the stickiness of dried blood down her cheek.

"I didn't even notice. I'm okay though. Are _you _alright?"

"Bit dizzy, I don't think I've got any broken bones though. Help me up"

Jadzia extended her arms towards Kira and helped herself get in a sitting position. She looked around with a look of confusion.

"What happened?"

Kira sighed and shook her head

"I have no idea! One minute we were in the shuttle on the way back to the station, the next we were all thrown around and I woke up just over there" She nodded her head towards the shuttle which lay in a mess not too far from them both.

Jadzia picked herself up onto her feet and put her hands on her hips; she took two steps and froze on the spot.

"Dax?"

She spun around to face Kira with a look of total fear and shock on her face

"Julian!"

Kira gasped. Of course, how could she have forgotten Doctor Bashir was with them? He wouldn't shut up throughout the entire journey. She slowly got up and leant on a tree for support, looking around for any sign of the doctor.

Jadzia ran back to the shuttle to see if Julian was still in there, although the chance of him surviving such a crash was slim.

Kira stayed outside leaning on the tree, still looking around and caught a glimpse of teal. She hobbled over and discovered Julian.

"He's out here!" She shouted to Dax

Jadzia arrived at her and Julian's side in no time at all.

Julian was laying on his back, his uniform torn to pieces, revealing bruising and bloody wounds up his entire body. There was a bruise on his temple but no blood on his face. His arm was at an angle which suggested it was broken, as was his leg.

"Julian can you hear me?" Jadzia asked, her voice slightly shaking. He looked awful but at least he was breathing. She could see his chest rising and falling

She received no response and turned to Kira

"Nerys, can you go and see if the medical kit survived the crash?"

Kira slowly stood up and all at once collapsed on the floor. She was starting to doubt it was just bruised flesh and bone in her ankle after all.

"Dax, I'm sorry. I think my ankle's sprained. You'll have to go"

Jadzia put her hand on Kira's shoulder and offered her a smile "Don't be sorry, just sit there and keep an eye on Julian. I'll be right back"

When Jadzia left for the shuttle, Kira moved towards Julian and put a hand to his face. He didn't so much as twitch at the touch, he felt so cold, and his face was too pale.

"Julian?" She didn't really expect a response but she had nothing else to try.

"_Damn it!" _Kira heard Jadzia's light curse and looked over her shoulder, Jadzia was outside with a hand on her forehead, looking very stressed.

"What is it?" Kira shouted at her, which caused Jadzia to lift her head and look at her with sad eyes.

"The medkit is completely destroyed, only the tricorder survived. So we'll be able to tell what our injuries are but we can't treat them!" She sounded annoyed but above all else, scared. She feared Julian wouldn't make it.

Kira nodded and turned her head towards Julian, still unconscious.

Jadzia walked over to them, knelt down and began scanning Bashir, she frowned at the results. "Damn. He's bad. 4 broken ribs, 5 cracked, a broken ulna, a broken tibia, severe abdominal trauma and a mild concussion." She stared at Julian's face then moved on to scan Kira, reading the results with no expression in her voice. "Mild concussion and a badly sprained ankle, you need to rest your foot. You can stay with Julian with the tricorder and tell me of any changes. Scan me"

She passed the tricorder to Kira, who began scanning her "slight concussion and a bruised jaw. Looks like you made it out the best out of all of us" Kira sighed and gently put the tricorder down next to her; she raised her gaze to Jadzia and gave her a reassuring smile. "Listen, Dax, go back to the shuttle and see if you can send a distress signal or anything. I'll stay with Julian to keep him company, oh, and, er, see if there's a few blankets in there, he's rather cold." She leaned forward and put a hand to Julian's forehead, _very cold._

Jadzia pushed herself up, nodded and moved her way to the shuttle, or what was left of it.

XXX

Kira was waiting patiently for Dax to come back with some firewood. Shortly after Jadzia arrived next to Kira with the news she sent a distress signal successfully, she gently placed two emergency blankets around Julian and one around Kira and made her way in search of wood to create a fire.

They had crashed roughly three hours ago, but it was still light so Kira presumed it was around midday judging by the position of the planet's sun.

She was starting to get drowsy and was just about to shut her eyes, when she heard a soft moan. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Julian frowning, turning his head from side to side, obviously trying to regain consciousness.

"Julian"

His eyes fluttered open and promptly squeezed shut. "Ah!" he cried in pain, squeezing his eyes shut. He was obviously feeling his injuries, they didn't even have any pain killers to give him

"Shhhh. Julian, listen to me, everything will be fine, just relax" Kira tried to make him feel better

"What happ'nd…" he cried out, his eyes still shut tightly.

"We crashed and your hurt, just rest. Help is coming" She just wanted him to pass out from the pain, hearing him cry out in agony made her feel sick.

"Hurt. What's hurt…?" He mumbled, his face losing all tension and his head rolled to the side. _Thank The Prophets, _Kira thought.

XXX

Jadzia strolled out the woods just over an hour later with a bundle of sticks in her hands as well as a container of fresh water. She soon lit a fire and sat next to Julian, trying to keep him as warm as possible. He was still cold, but he hadn't gotten any colder, which she thought was a good sign.

Kira was asleep opposite her, they decided to take turns and sleep, it would be safer that way. They could keep a look out for threats and keep an eye on Julian.

Jadzia scanned Julian for the fourth time that hour. His temperature had raised a bit

Just then she heard static, very faint static. For a moment she was confused to where it was coming from but she soon jumped up and sprinted back to the shuttle, someone was trying to hail them. After she cleared up the interference noise, she heard which was unmistakably Sisko's voice.

"Benjamin! How far away are you? Julian's seriously hurt and needs immediate medical assistance!" she refused to allow herself to get too hopeful, she didn't want to believe everything would be OK _just _yet

Sisko replied stating that they would be in transporter range within half an hour and they'll all be beamed straight to the Defiant's sickbay.

Jadzia acknowledged this and closed the channel, she smiled and ran back to wake Kira.

"Kira!" Her eyes jerked open and she sat up, causing Jadzia to take a jump back

"What?"

"Sisko just contacted us; he'll be in transporter range in thirty minutes." She excitedly informed Kira

"Oh. That's good" she breathed "How's Julian? Will he last that long?" her voice was quiet but held true concern for her friend

Jadzia walked over and saw Julian shivering; she leant over to tuck the blankets in more, when she felt the heat radiating from his skin. She immediately grabbed the tricorder and scanned him

"He's got a bad fever, and internal bleeding, I think one of his ribs punctured something. He needs help, according to these readings… He'll be dead in less than one hour!" She looked at Kira with sad eyes "Stay with him while I go and see if there's any more water I can use to bring down his temperature"

When Jadzia left for her search, Kira pulled herself to Julian, pushing his wet hair from his sweaty face. "C'mon Doc, you can make it half hour right? You're far too stubborn to give in!"

XXX

Julian was getting worse; the Defiant was due to beam them up in five minutes. Jadzia arrived with the water ten minutes earlier and immediately tore a piece of cloth from one of the blankets and soaked it with the water to place it on Julian's forehead. Kira was poking the fire, occasionally glancing up at the sky.

"Just five minutes Julian, you can do it!" Jadzia quietly urged her good friend.

She heard a gulping sound coming from him, she looked down and he looked like he was going to be sick. Before she could turn his head away so as not to choke on his own vomit, he coughed. A horrible gurgling sound came from his throat and she feared what would happen. She was nonetheless startled and scared when a trickle of blood appeared from the side of Julian's mouth. He coughed again and more blood spilled out, staining his lips and leaving a trail of red down his chin and cheek.

She grabbed his head and turned it to the side; he kept on coughing, more and more blood erupting from his throat. She was about to call Kira, but she felt the unmistakable glimmer of the transporter. _Oh thank you, God!_

XXX

It took three days to arrive back at the Station, Bashir was unconscious the whole time, his surgery a complete success and they transferred him to the Infirmary to fully recover. One of his broken ribs did indeed puncture something; his spleen had to be replaced after they had stopped the internal bleeding.

He was due to be unconscious for at least eight more hours and later awoke to see Kira sitting next to him.

"Glad you're with us Julian" she gave him a genuine smile and gently held his hand

"Kira? What happened" he still sounded weak

"You, me and Dax crashed on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. We were there for five hours until we were rescued, quite amazing really!" She smiled at him

"Why am I in the Infirmary? I don't remember crashing" he mumbled

Kira's smile faded and she let go of his hand "You were unconscious the entire time, well; you woke up for a few seconds but soon passed out again. What's the last thing you remember?"

Julian closed his eyes and turned his face towards the ceiling "The shuttle. We were trying to keep control, I remember Dax hitting the wall and falling down…Dax. How is she?!" he faced Kira with wide eyes

"She's fine Julian; she only had a bump on the head"

Julian smiled "Good. I don't remember anything after that." He paused and his lips drew in a thin line "What were your injuries?"

_Typical doctor, _Kira mused "Sprained ankle and a mild concussion. Nothing really"

"And… what were mine?"

She looked at him with sad eyes "Bad concussion, broken arm and leg, broken ribs, …internal bleeding…one of your ribs punctured your spleen, Julian. You were coughing up blood shortly before we were transported on the Defiant." She had a tear in her eye at the memory… "Julian, you died"

He stared at her in shock "You mean my breathing stopped?"

"And your heart. You were technically dead for two and a half minutes, before they brought you back. You were so close, Julian. They nearly gave up, but you were too stubborn. Your heart began beating on its own and they helped pick it up with the cardio stimulator!"

Julian was trying to grasp all of this, but he suddenly felt so tired! He nodded once and his held lolled to the side.

Kira smiled and leant forward to place a kiss on his forehead

"Welcome back, doctor"

END

_**I hope you liked it!**_

_**There may be a *slightly* bigger gap between my next stories, I want to get cracking with new ones.**_

_**You're one's next Mushushy!**_

**" "What is it?" Miles asked**

**Julian stood very still, straining his hearing to see if he could detect any other noise**

**"Julian?"**

**"Shhh! Miles, I'm trying to listen" As he said that, he felt the ice crack under his feet. Damn**

**"Miles! Stay where you are! The ice…" His sentence was cut off as the ice gave way under his feet, causing him to fall through the ice into the freezing water depths underneath... "**


	6. Chapter 6

**_This is Mushushy's suggestion. ICE PLANET! oooh_**

**_I had a lot of fun doing this one, and spent a while googling on the NHS website for *certain* symptoms _**

XXX

"It's _bloody _freezing! How did I end up on this damn mission anyway?" Miles' booming voice caught Julian by surprise and he dropped his tricorder on the shuttle floor

Sighing as he picked it up, he turned his gaze to his friend "If you think that it's freezing here, just wait until we go outside, Chief" He smiled as Miles' groaned

Miles walked to the back of the Shuttle to grab two fur coats; the air on the planet was breathable so they had no need for environmental suits.

"Catch!" He threw one the coats at Julian who, unawares, wasn't prepared to catch it and it hit him the face. Miles snorted at Julian's little yelp of surprise

Julian wasn't happy with this mission; he didn't understand why _he _had to come. Sisko ordered O'Brien to go, stating that he hadn't been off the station for a while and the 'fresh air' would do him good. Julian had been told to go as some plants with possible medicinal properties had been found. He wouldn't have come, but the Infirmary was quiet and another Doctor was already on the station to cover him whilst he's away.

"Last time I checked, this planet was in its summer time! How can a planet's weather change so quickly?" Julian complained as he put on the coat, fastening the zip all the way up to avoid any draft getting in. "Are there gloves, Chief?"

Miles was already back at the storage boxes, picking up everything they would need: gloves, hats, scarfs…

"Grab the flasks, Julian, and then we can get this all over with!" Miles said as he closed the boxes.

Julian did as he was told, filling up the flasks with hot chocolate and passing one to the Chief

"Ready when you are" He said gleefully, hiding his true feelings of the mission. He didn't want to be on a mission with a miserable Irishman, so he did his best to lift his spirits

"I'm coming, have you got the tricorders?" Miles asked, as an answer, Julian held the tricorders to show him

"Let's go in search of these plants" Julian doubted they were even still alive with all this snow, but it _was _a foreign planet, anything was possible.

XXX

They hadn't made it one kilometre before Miles began his complaining again

"We should just go home! Any plants would have died from the cold. I think I'm a couple of minutes away from becoming a human icicle!" He truly was fed up, he never liked the cold

"According to these readings, Chief, there are plants. Just over there!" Julian pointed to a small forest roughly four hundred metres away.

The snow itself wasn't that deep, it was just _cold_! There was a slight wind but it wasn't strong and it definitely wouldn't pull them off their feet. Both officers trudged along towards the forest.

"Whoa. Wait a minute Chief! The tricorders picked up frozen lake directly ahead of us. We'll have to go around" He turned to look at Miles, before walking left

"Wait! How long with that take. I mean, how big is this lake?" He would have just taken out his own tricorder, but didn't see the point when Julian already had one out

"The lake is two miles long and two hundred metres wide." Julian stopped to tell the Chief

"That will take extra time! I'm fed up and cold, how stable is the lake?"

"Miles, we can't risk it! God knows how cold that water is! It's safer to go round, c'mon" He began walking again

"Oh, Julian" Miles whined "Don't you just want to be in the warm again? We're not that heavy, we'll be alright. If anything _does _happen, I'll be entirely responsible" He just wanted to be warm again, he had finished his hot chocolate and needed the toilet. He was too scared to go on this planet just in case the cold would freeze a certain part of his anatomy.

"I don't know, Miles…" Julian was beginning to reconsider, the snow and air were so cold, and surely the lake would have been frozen solid.

"Damn it, Julian. Either we walk across or I'm heading back to the shuttle!"

"Alright, alright! We'll go, _but, _I'll go first, OK?" Julian walked back towards Miles before he put an experimental step on the ice. It seemed stable enough, no cracking noise. He nodded and put his tricorder back in its holder "We go on tip toes alright? Try and keep as light on your feet as possible"

Waiting for some form of acknowledgement from Miles, Julian stared at the Chief until he nodded.

XXX

They were over half way across the lake now, not far to go. Neither of them heard any cracking or creaking, which they thought was good.

"Are you still on your tip toes, Miles?" Julian shouted back, he was unaware that the Chief was about two metres behind him

"I'm only here, and _yes _I am on my tip toes!" Miles said sarcastically

Julian smiled at the Chief's obvious annoyance. He was about to say something else when he heard something he was dreading.

A creak

He stopped and put a hand up behind him to warn the Miles to stop as well

"What is it?" Miles asked

Julian stood very still, straining his hearing to see if he could detect any other noise

"Julian?"

"Shhh! Miles, I'm trying to listen" As he said that, he felt the ice crack under his feet. _Damn_

"Miles! Stay where you are! The ice…" His sentence was cut off as the ice gave way under his feet, causing him to fall through the ice into the freezing water depths underneath

"Julian!" Miles eyes went wide! He couldn't see anything! He went to run, but heard the ice creaking under his feet. He stood, frozen. Thinking of what to do. He had to think fast, he doubted anyone could survive long down there.

XXX

Julian was truly scared when he felt the ice crack under his feet; he was unprepared when it no longer supported his weight. Dropping him into the ice cold water

He couldn't believe how _cold _it was! He didn't even notice as he went under the water, the cold was just too much, he couldn't last long.

Attempting to take a breath proved useless, all he brought into his lungs was water, so cold it burned. His head hurt, everything was dimming around him. There was no way he could find the hole he crashed through, his struggling had moved him too far away. The fur coat failed to keep him warm as he gave up his fight and went limp, allowing the cold to take its course before lack of oxygen did.

XXX

Miles could see splashing, moving carefully forward, he saw Julian. The water and ice was completely clear once he moved the snow off it. "Julian!"

The body wasn't moving, not even a twitch. He didn't know what to do; did he run back to the shuttle and beam him out? No. That would take too long. He mustered up all his strength and put his arms in the water, trying to cause a current to pull Julian toward him

The cold went straight through to his skin, despite the layers. He ignored it as he continued to create the current.

His hands touched something solid. He grabbed it for life and pulled until he could get a better grasp on it. Hoisting the body out the lake, Miles immediately checked for a pulse, there wasn't one! He wasn't breathing, either. Panic took over and he picked Julian up and put him round his shoulders, moving back towards the shuttle. The whole journey back took a lot less time as Miles was near enough running

XXX

Finally! He had reached the shuttle and closed the doors, ordering the computer to increase the temperature. He took Julian's clothes off, all of them. It was top priority to take the cold and wet things off a body.

Running back to the sleeping quarters, he grabbed every blanket he could find and wrapped some of them round Julian, rubbing his shoulders to get him warmed up. He was too pale, his lips had gone blue and he still wasn't breathing.

Not wanting to waste any more time to grab a medkit, he did the only thing he could think of.

Pushing Julian's head back, he took a deep breath and breathed down his throat. Trying to breathe for him. After two more breathes, he began pumping on his chest.

He did this for two whole minutes; Julian was still unconscious, and still cold. Miles stopped and looked down at his best friends face, feeling so guilty. If it wasn't for his _stupid _idea to cross the lake, Julian would still be alive.

No! He couldn't give up now! He began his CPR and vowed to never stop until Julian lived

Just when Miles was beginning to feel lightheaded, he felt a pulse. Excited, he kept breathing down Julian's throat, again and again

All of a sudden, Julian coughed, expelling ice cold water onto the floor. Miles picked him up and patted his back as Julian still coughed up water. "There we go, Julian"

Julian stopped his coughing and looked round the shuttle, a look of confusion and fear on his face, "Dead?" was the only thing he said

Miles involuntarily chuckled "No, Julian. You're alive, now"

_Alive, now? _So he had died. He felt so tired, but he felt even colder "C-cold" his head dropped and his cheek lay against Miles shoulder.

Noticing that his friend's body went limp, he lowered Julian to the floor and checked his pulse and breathing. Everything was still fine and he moved to rub the blankets all up his body. He wanted to bring back his colour, his lips were still blue.

"C'mon Julian, you'll be alright" After his ministrations failed to warm him up, he ordered the computer to increase the temperature once more. Miles was sweating now, which he though ironic as not even an hour ago; he was out in the cold complaining of being freezing.

He stopped his movements. _An hour ago? Julian was dead for just under an hour? _He looked at his friend, how was it possible he was still alive. How long did he breathe for him and pump his chest?

That wasn't important now; he needed to get Julian's temperature up and decided to move him to the sleeping area.

XXX

After carefully putting his injured friend down, he removed the old blankets that had become damp and replaced them with fresh ones.

"Julian. Can you open your eyes?" Miles' voice was shaking. Julian's hair was still wet, but Miles was more interested in the fact he was now shivering, violently.

Using his hands, he held Julian by his shoulders, trying to get him to stay still. The heat was beginning to make Miles' clothes stick to him. He was getting dizzy and had to take his layers off to avoid him fainting. Grasping hold of Julian's shoulders once more, he stayed with his friend until his shivering ceased.

Now that he was still and a little warmer, Miles went to collect the medkit to scan and treat the Doctor.

What he wouldn't give for a cold shower! He was so hot, but Julian was still not as warm as he should be so he had to suffer until Julian was stabilised to make the flight back to DS9

Picking up the necessary supplies, he walked back to Julian's still figure and began to scan him. His breathing was incredibly shallow, his pulse weak but what concerned Miles most was the fact that Julian's body temperature had dropped to twenty-seven degrees centigrade. _Very low._

Comparing Julian's symptoms to the medical databases, he discovered Julian was suffering from hypothermia, _severe _hypothermia. He needed a doctor, and quick. He stripped down more until he was left in his under garments and told the computer to raise the temperature another five degrees.

"Computer, scan Doctor Bashir every five minutes and inform me of any changes"

Miles couldn't just sit here! He had to get Julian safe. He walked to the cockpit and set a course for DS9

XXX

_"Update: Doctor Bashir's body temperature has dropped to twenty-six degrees centigrade" _The computer's patient voice echoed all around Miles

"Computer, how long until we reach the station?" _Please don't let it be long…_

_"Twenty-two minutes, fourteen seconds" _

Setting the shuttle to autopilot, he ran to the back to Julian, who looked _dead. _He was so pale; Miles couldn't see or hear him breathing. Thinking the worst, he put two fingers to his friends' throat, feeling an incredibly weak pulse. _Will he last the twenty minutes?_

Rubbing Julian's shoulders again was the only thing he could think of, he had already given him the maximum dose of the drug needed into his system. He didn't want him to go into shock.

"Twenty minutes, Julian. C'mon I know you can hear me! Twenty minutes, twenty minutes…"

XXX

He must have dozed off, for he awoke to an alarm sounding. For a moment he was disorientated, wondering where he was.

_"Doctor Bashir's life signs have dropped, patient: deceased"_

At the words, Miles jumped up and looked at his friend. He looked so peaceful, like he was just asleep. He was in a moment of shock of what to do, when a voice called out

_"DS9 to Rio Grande, come in" Dax's voice came through_

"Dax! We need an emergency beam out to the Infirmary NOW!"

_"Energizing" _

XXX

Miles rematerialized in the Infirmary, cold air hit his skin and he took a deep breath. He looked down at Julian, looking exactly the same as before

"I need help!" He shouted

The Doctor who had covered for Julian was by his side instantly, asking for help to pick the still form onto a vacant biobed.

Still not breathing, still no heart beat

"What happened?" The Doctor, Tarses, asked while at the same time attaching devices and wires to Julian's body

"He fell in a lake, been unconscious ever since. I tried to get his body temperature up, but couldn't. The computer declared him dead a couple of minutes ago. You gotta save him!" Miles babbled and then was lead to the waiting room by one of the nurses, who stopped and touched his forehead

"You're burning up! Let me get you something" She wondered off to get the necessary hypospray, Miles didn't even notice, he was still staring through the window to where Julian lay.

XXX

Tarses was shouting for hyposprays and assistance. One nurse gave him the necessary drug and he deposited it into Julian's system, looking up at the biosigns for any difference.

"Still no pulse, Doctor"

Taking the cardio stimulator and placing it on the patient's chest, he imputed the command on the computer. Watching as Julian's entire body arched under the electrical current.

"No change!"

Angry, Tarses inputted another command.

Still nothing

"Increasing voltage by ten percent" He watched as Julian's body was lifted up off the table

"No change" The nurse said in a slightly shaky voice

Shouting for a stronger drug, he pressed the command again, waiting for the hypospray to be given to the doctor.

"Nothing!"

One of the nurses sprinted back to Julian's form and gave him the drug and stood back as his body once again arched

"I've got a slight pulse!"

Tarses smiled and gave one more command

"He's breathing and has a pulse"

Tarses walked over and studied the readouts with a frown "His body temperature is still too low, we need to warm him and fast!"

He removed the stimulator and replaced it with some wires he put on Julian's arms, legs, chest and head.

The wires would put heat directly into his body, gradually increasing his body temperature.

Sighing, he leant back and ran a hand over his face. _Too close_

He suddenly remembered Julian's companion, the Chief, who had arrived with him. Not looking very well himself. Walking to the waiting room, he saw the nurse give him a hypo and offer him a drink.

When Miles saw the Doctor, he stood straight up, scared to death of what he might say

"It's alright, Chief. He's going to be fine! It was a bit touch and go for a while but he'll survive." He moved towards the Chief and put his arm around his shoulders, leading him to a biobed. "His chest was a mass of bruises and he showed signs of a previous cardiac arrest. Tell me, did you perform CPR on him?"

Miles lowered his gaze; still processing the fact Julian is fine. It took him a while to find his voice "erm… yes. When I got him out of the lake, he wasn't breathing. I pumped until he gasped for air; he regained consciousness for about ten seconds, and then collapsed again."

Tarses nodded "Do you know how long you pumped on his chest?" his eyebrows went up

"N-no"

He shook his head "Chief, according to our readings, his heart had previously stopped for forty two minutes, and the severity of the bruising clarifies. Were you lightheaded by any chance? You were sweating, I presume you increased the temperature as far as you could cope, along with the fact you were giving your breath to him. You could have died yourself from hyperthermia, very dangerous thing you did, there, but heroic nonetheless." He smiled and gave a pat on his arm before turning to leave

"Doctor! He'll be fine, right?"

"He'll be unconscious for a while but, yes, he'll be alright. Thanks to you" He gave a wink and went to turn back to where Julian was

Just then the Infirmary doors opened, Dax ran in, out of breath

"What happened?" she demanded

Walking towards her, Tarses put his arm around her shoulder and led her to the office, explaining on the way.

Miles finished his water and walked to the display window, seeing Julian lying unconscious, but _alive_ made him happy. He actually shed a tear.

Realising that he was to no one's use, he walked out of the Infirmary to talk to report to Sisko. He still felt guilty, but was nonetheless thrilled that Julian would survive, and probably be in a bit of pain from all the bruises on his chest.

That made him chuckle, Julian being forced to sit around, bored and probably _very _annoyed. He released the breathe he'd been holding and made his way to Sisko's office.

END

_**I REALLY HOPED YOU LIKED IT, MUSHUSHY!**_

_**The next story will be about torture, I don't know how my little innocent head came up with something so cruel, but y'know **_

_**"He opened his eyes again and spoke, his throat was so sore from screaming, but he managed to bring forth one word "Claire?"**_

_**Hearing her name spoken caused her to jump, she turned round and walked up to him, releasing his head from its bonds. He turned his head and gave her a sad smile, before repeating her name softly "Claire"**_

_**"So you remember my name now? I'm surprised you know it! Don't think for one second that I'll forgive you just like that" she clicked her fingers "I intend to make you pay, I know I'm not alone when I say I want to see you suffer for your crimes. Many people would gladly sit by and watch me hurt you, you're not as popular as you thought, Julian!"**_

_**Her hands moved over to remove the implant from his head and place it lower on his body, a lot lower, past his chest, downwards from his stomach and stopping in-between his thighs**_

_**He braced himself for the pain that was to come, but was unprepared for the indescribable pain that hit him in the most sensitive part of his body. He screamed, a sound he had never made before erupted from his throat."**_

_**I'm currently writing about a Jem'Hadar thing, and it's already 4k words! I just can't trim it down at all!**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**SO! This is a torture story. If you don't like mention of blood or torture stuff, look away NOW!.**_

_**If you're still reading. *HEY* Glad you're still here, friend. Let's get on shall we...**_

XXX

Julian Bashir awoke to darkness, and silence. He couldn't see anything around him; he tried to move his hand to his aching head but discovered he couldn't. Something was holding his arms and wrists in place. Frowning, he tried to move his legs, but found they were impossible to move as well. His head was immobilised by a strap, he just could not move. _Where am I? _He frowned, trying to remember but found it difficult to focus.

He gave one last attempt to struggle when he heard a noise, it sounded like a door opening and closing. When he tried to ask who's there, he realised his mouth was covered with something, _cloth maybe? _

"Ah, so you're awake then. Good" A woman's voice echoed all around him, she gave a little chuckle and he heard her walk up to him

He still couldn't remember how he got here, or why he was here. His heart was thundering away, he was nervous. What was going on?

The woman continued to walk up to him, staring at his still form, strapped to the table, immobilised. A cruel smile worked its way on her face as she stopped by his side and she moved her hand to remove the blindfold from his eyes

He shut his eyes from the brightness that all of a sudden appeared, he groaned, shutting his eyes even more tightly.

"Come on, open your eyes, Doctor" her voice was dripping with sarcasm, he tried to ignore it but he wanted to see where he was.

He opened his eyes slowly and saw a human woman, about thirty years of age, blonde, staring at him, a look of disdain on her face.

"There we are! Now. Do you know where you are?" she asked

He couldn't move his head, couldn't talk, how did she expect him to answer?

As if reading his thoughts, she moved and took the piece of material out his mouth "Do you know where you are?" she repeated

It took him a few attempts to find his voice before he answered "No". His throat was raw

She smiled wickedly and moved out of his field of vision "I'm not surprised if your throat hurts, Doctor. Jipli Root does tend to make the throat sore"

_Jipli Root? How on Earth did I manage to breathe in Jipli Root? Oh… _He remembered…

XXX

_He had just finished his shift in the Infirmary and was making his way to his quarters for some well-earned rest. _

_He had just turned the last corner when someone grabbed him from behind, placing their arm around his throat. He couldn't breathe. He felt them place something over his nose and mouth. He tried to struggle but was rapidly losing consciousness, when the arm disappeared, causing him to inadvertently take a huge gulp of what was over his face. _

_The Doctor collapsed immediately into his attacker's arms and was beamed away to a deserted part of the station._

XXX

"You're still on the station, Doctor, but I don't think they'll find you for a while, which gives us enough time to have some _fun!_" The woman was talking in a menacing voice

"What do you want with me?" His throat was still sore and he rasped his question

The woman was above him again, she frowned at him and moved her hands to caress his cheek, before she slapped him hard enough to bruise.

"Oh. You don't understand do you?" She sounded genuinely sad "Poor, poor Doctor" She placed the cloth back over his mouth and moved away.

He heard rummaging and humming, but could not move his head to see what was happening.

"You're here because I am a scientist and I need a guinea pig for my latest research" She approached him with an implant in her hand. "I want to see how much your _genetically enhanced _brain can take before it cracks under the pressure"

Julian was beginning to panic now, he didn't recognise the implant, and he had no idea where she was going to put it. He had training at the academy for scenarios like this, but he was nevertheless frightened at the prospect of being tortured.

The woman saw fear cross over the Doctors face, he stared at her with big eyes, she could see tears forming in the corners

"Why are you so scared, Doctor? I thought you're enhancements made you more susceptible to pain than ordinary humans"

She placed the implant on Julian's chest, which drew his attention to the fact he was still fully clothed, and pressed a button on the remote control in her hand. All at once Julian arched off the table; the electric currents were surging through his entire body. The woman smiled at his pain, before she pressed the button again and his movements stopped and he was left taking big breathes through his nose.

"Oh, stop being such a baby, _Julian!_" She tutted and shook her head "You still don't recognise me do you? That makes me incredibly upset!" The woman pressed the button again and watched in pleasure as Julian yelled in agony against his gag.

The pain stopped an eternity later and Julian heard the strange woman talking again "…same class together, Julian. I came fourth in our class. I was so upset! I put so much effort into my work; I should have _at least _been in the top three! I was furious, Doctor! I couldn't get the job I wanted, I became depressed and no one would hire me." She stopped to walk right up the Julian and sink her fist in his stomach; she smiled at his pain "Over time I decided to move away from medicine, it only made me feel worse. So, I decided to go into science, I really enjoyed it. My knowledge of medicine made it easier for me." She moved away from him and strolled to the tray of tools she had hidden in the dark corner "Imagine my surprise when I overheard two Starfleet admirals talking about a Doctor, a Doctor who was genetically engineered. Who had CHEATED his way through life, while I had to suffer!" She yelled and punched the wall, leaving blood where the skin on her knuckles had torn.

_This woman is INSANE! I don't remember her at all!_

She walked back to him with another implant, she removed the one from his chest and threw it away and placed the new implant on his head. "You do realise, Julian, that I would be living an entirely different life if you never showed up! I could be successful, be married, have children! YOU TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ME!" She pressed the button and tore away Julian's gag. She wanted to hear him scream, which he did. The implant was sending messages of pain straight into his brain; he couldn't help _but _scream, it was agony.

She left the implant on for a while longer, enjoying him screaming. If it wasn't for him, she would have been third in the class; she blamed him for everything that went wrong in her life.

Finally, the pain stopped and he opened his eyes slowly, just to shut them again as light burned his eyes.

"You still don't remember me do you? No wonder really, you were just interested in the pretty girls, no one paid any attention to me! I remember when I was revealed as the fourth to graduate, I heard people whispering, asking who I was! I didn't have any friends, oh and I tried to talk to you, Julian, but you always just ignored me! I hated you then, and I hate you even more now!" She spat in his face and walked away out of his line of sight.

Julian remembered now, the girl who would sit all alone at break times, he felt sorry for her. On more than one occasion, he did try and talk to her, but she was miles away, reading her books. He remembered that time when she approached him, but his friends dragged him away to introduce him to a girl, a dancer.

He opened his eyes again and spoke, his throat was so sore from screaming, but he managed to bring forth one word "Claire?"

Hearing her name spoken caused her to jump; she turned round and walked up to him, releasing his head from its bonds. He turned his head and gave her a sad smile, before repeating her name softly "Claire"

"So you remember my name now? I'm surprised you know it! Don't think for _one _second that I'll forgive you just like that" she clicked her fingers "I intend to make you pay, I know I'm not alone when I say I want to see you suffer for your crimes. Many people would gladly sit by and watch me hurt you; you're not as popular as you thought, Julian!"

Her hands moved over to remove the implant from his head and place it lower on his body, a lot lower, past his chest, downwards from his stomach and stopping in-between his thighs

He braced himself for the pain that was to come, but was unprepared for the _indescribable _pain that hit him in the most sensitive part of his body. He screamed, a sound he had never made before erupted from his throat.

She laughed as she turned up the intensity on the remote, only to frown when the pain became too much for him and he lost consciousness.

Angry, she turned the remote off and threw it on the floor; she walked up to Julian's still form and stared intently at his face. She would not let him get away from the pain. Claire walked back over to the corner and picked up a hypospray, on the way collecting the remote she threw on the floor.

When she was by the Doctors side once more, she pressed the hypospray against his neck and watched as he was forced back into consciousness. She greeted him with a fake smile before she pressed the remote once more.

This repeated for two more hours before she became bored and wanted to try something different.

XXX

In all of his life, Julian had never known such _pain. _The pain was too much; he continuously fainted, only to be revived to go through it all over again. He just wanted it to stop!

Claire finally removed the implant and carried it back to the corner.

"I hope that wasn't too painful for you, I'd hate it if you broke so soon" She called to him with a fake smile

Julian groaned and turned his head away from her, praying someone would burst in and save him "Please…stop this"

Claire sprinted up to him and put her hand against his throat, tightening ever so slowly "Do NOT speak to me! I never want to hear you speak, only scream in agony!" she let go of his throat and composed herself "now, let's move on shall we? I think I have a knife somewhere…ah! Here it is"

Julian gave one more attempt to plead with this woman "Claire…" it was as far as he got, the knife came down and slashed his cheek, blood spilled down onto his clothes and table, he squeezed his eyes shut and grunted in pain.

Claire brought the knife down again and slashed his torso, cutting through his jumpsuit and leaving a deep gash from his right shoulder to just above his sternum, again, he grunted, but she wanted to hear him scream! Going through her previous experience at medical school, she remembered conducting an autopsy and overhearing Julian telling his friends that it is his worst nightmare having an autopsy done when he was still alive. She always thanked her photographic memory.

She beamed down at him and whispered in his ear "What's your worst nightmare, Julian?" at this, his eyes flew open and he looked at her with pleading eyes.

She ripped open his jumpsuit, revealing his bloody torso. He began to struggle even more when he realised that she knew _exactly _what his worst nightmare was. His struggling soon began to annoy her and she strapped his head down again to prevent him moving it.

"Just be still, Julian. I know what I'm doing. I think we should start with the chest cavity, don't you?" She gave a giggle.

Bringing down the tip of the knife to the top of his sternum, she began to make an incision. She brought the knife down in a slow movement and stopped at his belly button. Blood was streaming out the wound and Julian was crying.

"Come on, Julian. You don't have to hold back. _Scream" _She said in a seductive voice before licking the bloody knife and smiling.

She then brought the knife to his right side and did another incision across to his left side, leaving Julian's torso with a _"+". _Blood was rapidly pouring out his wounds and he was so scared! His heart was thundering away and he feared it would burst, he began crying again, begging her to stop. Claire only laughed at his crying, and moved to get the forceps.

She noticed how pale Julian was, he wouldn't last much longer from loss of blood. But by the speed of his breathing, she suspected he would die of a heart attack. Walking back to his body, she stared at the man; she didn't feel any sorrow for him. Moving the forceps to his incision, she peeled back Julian's skin and muscle, revealing his rib cage.

He screamed! She was thrilled that she managed to make him scream. She had been planning this for months! She just needed the time and place to conduct her '_research'. _Claire remembered when she came aboard DS9, keeping quiet and avoiding any people. She had been waiting in Quarks, ordering drinks and food, whilst all the time keeping a subtle eye on the Infirmary.

XXX

_She had just ordered her fourth drink, a synthahol. She didn't want to be intoxicated when the time came; she wanted to be in total control. She smiled at the thought of what she was going to do. _

_Just when her drink came, she saw him. He said goodbye to someone and strolled out his Infirmary, he yawned. Claire silently thanked the Gods; him being tired would make his abduction a lot easier for her. _

_Downing her drink, she began following him, taking out the breathing contraption at the same time. No one was around, this was the perfect time. She had brought her arm round his throat, pulling as tight as she could. She was surprised at how quickly he was falling onto the ground; she thought he was meant to be superior! _

_Right before she released his throat, she placed the contraption over his nose and mouth. One deep breath and he would be unconscious for one hour, plenty of time to prepare her session._

_Once he sagged to the floor, she signalled the computer to do a site to site transport. She knew no one would detect it; she had a lot of experience in things like this. No one would possibly know where he was for at least three hours. _Plenty _of time to do everything she wanted._

_They had rematerialized in an abandoned part of the station, one that was covered in dust. She had been here before, so the table and tools were all prepared for her. Dragging him and placing him on the table proved to be a lot more difficult than she thought. He was heavier than he looked._

_Once she had him on the table, she began strapping him to the table, fastening his wrists and feet. She couldn't wait until he regained consciousness, seeing a look of confusion on his face. She laughed at the thought._

_Now, she waited._

XXX

Bringing herself to the present, she looked at his face. His eyes were staring at her, tears down his pale face. She could tell he was near death, she moved her hand to sweep the tears away, before moving her hand down to his torso. She grasped one of his ribs, holding it tightly, tearing the intercostal muscles. She heard Julian cry out once more before he fell into unconsciousness. Her hands covered in blood, she couldn't pick up the hypospray to revive him. Deciding she didn't want to waste any more time, she picked up the forceps again. She was intent on removing his ribs, to gain access to his heart. She moved the forceps and placed them over one of his ribs when he began to glow.

She paused and stared, confused at his glowing form. _What is that? _Then he began to disappear and she realised he was being transported away. "NOOOOOOO!" she screamed with all her might and slammed her tools on the floor and grasped her hair, leaving it soaked with blood.

She had been discovered; Odo and a security team ran in with phasers and stunned her before she even turned round.

Odo walked slowly up to her and moved his gaze up to the table, seeing bonds and a considerable amount of blood stains.

He signalled to his deputies to drag the insane woman to the security cells

XXX

It was Garak who had found out Julian was missing; they had agreed to meet for a quick meeting to give each other some literature when the Doctor didn't show up. After asking the computer where he was, the computer stated it could not locate him.

He queried it with Commander Sisko and together they found his location, and his incredibly weak life signs, in a deserted part of the station. They had O'Brien lock onto his life signs and beam him straight to the Infirmary where another doctor was waiting, while Odo and four of his security officers were on their way to take down the woman and make her face justice

Garak and Sisko were both in the Infirmary when Julian was beamed in and Sisko had to turn his head away from the grotesque sight in front of him. Garak just stared, horrified at the Doctors state, he looked dead, blood was gushing from a wound on his torso.

Nurses and doctors were screaming orders, Garak kept on staring, Sisko had to go sit down, and there was Julian, lying so still, oblivious to everything that was happening. Garak knew he was going to be unconscious for a _long _time, he couldn't be of any use to anyone so decided to go and see Odo. He wanted to pay the person who did this a…_visit._

XXX

Julian was operated on all through the night; he had lost a _lot _of blood and went into shock a few times. After giving him hypospray after hypospray after hypospray, they decided he would make it and stitched him up before moving him out of ICU.

The doctor knew _exactly _what happened to the doctor's torso as soon as he had the blood cleared up. A doctor had done this, or at least someone with medical experience. He knew an autopsy incision when he saw one and prayed that Julian wasn't conscious when it happened.

Julian would have a scar, it couldn't be helped. The incision was too deep, he felt sorry for Julian, having a scar to remind him of his horrible experience.

XXX

Four hours after Julian's successful surgery, another patient was beamed in, a woman, about 30 years of age. It was too late; she had been stabbed through the heart whilst she was being held in a security cell.

XXX

Garak made his way to his quarters quickly, hiding the bloody knife he had concealed in his garments…

END.

_**How was it?**_

_**I hope no one fainted whilst reading it. It wasn't *that* bad, was it? **_

_**I just had to have Garak take his revenge mwahaha**_

_**The next story was originally going to be a poison fic, but I just had an idea of fitting it in with another idea I had. So it's the Jem'Hadar one! :P**_

_**"After punching in a few commands, a Jem'Hadar's face filled the view screen. He looked strangely relaxed "Starfleet vessel. Our scans show that you are holding a Dominion prisoner on your ship. Give them back to us or we'll take him by force"**_

_**Julian froze, his heart jumped in his chest as he heard the Jem'Hadar's request. Jadzia tried to reason with the alien, stating that there were no prisoners on board, and that there scanners must be faulty.**_

_**It didn't work**_

_**"Our scanners are one hundred percent accurate. Turn him over" His face remained neutral**_

_**She turned off the view screen and attempted to make a getaway, but the Jem'Hadar seemed to know what they were planning and shot one phaser beam to knock all the engines offline.**_

_**"Prepare to be boarded" The Jem'Hadar's voice echoed all around them"**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**oooooooh! Looking forward to this one? **_

_**This one is over 5k words and it took me a while which is why I didn't upload sooner. I'M SORRY! :'(**_

_**But hey, it's here now so let's celebrate! **_

XXX

"Well. That was _eventful." _Julian's voice was laced with sarcasm as he turned his chair towards Jadzia, who was piloting the shuttle.

She was concentrating on her panel that she didn't notice him speak. She frowned at one of the readouts she got.

Julian smiled at her concentration; he thought it would do her good to focus on something on such a boring mission. He was about to get up and order a coffee from the Replicator when Jadzia's voice made him freeze.

"Two Jem'Hadar vessels are approaching, their weapons are online" She didn't look at him, she was busy arming phasers and raising shields.

Julian turned his chair to face his panel "They're scanning us" he informed her.

Jadzia frowned once more "What are they doing?" She was surprised they weren't firing on them already "They're hailing us".

After punching in a few commands, a Jem'Hadar's face filled the view screen. He looked strangely relaxed "Starfleet vessel. Our scans show that you are holding a Dominion prisoner on your ship. Give them back to us or we'll take him by force".

Julian froze, his heart jumped in his chest as he heard the Jem'Hadar's request. His experience in the Camp was something he'd much rather forget, he would never willingly go back there.

Jadzia put on her best perplexed face and tried to reason with the alien, stating that there were _no _prisoners on board, and that there scanners must be faulty.

It didn't work.

"Our scanners are one hundred percent accurate. Turn him over" His face remained neutral.

She tapped a few controls and the view screen turned off, the Jem'Hadar would think it's a technical fault. Quickly after the view screen went blank, she attempted to make a getaway, but the Jem'Hadar seemed to know what they were planning and shot one phaser beam to knock all the engines offline.

"Prepare to be boarded" The Jem'Hadar's voice echoed all around them

Julian and Dax looked at each other and stood up grabbing their phasers. They pointed them to where they could see the Jem'Hadar already materialising "Don't worry Julian, I won't let them take you" Jadzia promised.

Jadzia and Julian could see the Jem'Hadar figures forming and fired as soon as they were rematerialized. The outcome they were hoping for didn't happen; their phasers were dead, drained of power.

She wouldn't admit defeat and allow the barbarians to take her friend! Jadzia threw her phaser to the floor and walked up to the Jem'Hadar and lifted her chin, her insides squirming "I'm the senior officer on this ship, anything…" Her sentence was cut off as a phaser blast from one of the aliens hit her in the chest

Julian immediately tried to run to her aid, making sure the symbiont was okay. He made three steps before his arms were abruptly ceased by one Jem'Hadar. He tried to struggle, clawing at the hand that was holding him too tightly. Another one grabbed his other arm holding him immobile whilst the third stood in front of him and brought his phaser rifle smashing towards Julian's face. Julian went limp immediately; the blow had knocked him straight out, blood pouring from his nose.

"We've captured the prisoner, beam us aboard" The third Jem'Hadar commanded into his combadge and the four of them were beamed back to Dominion ship.

XXX

As soon as they beamed on board, the Jem'Hadar let go of Julian's arms and he collapsed to the floor. Not caring if he fell awkwardly or not.

"Take us back to Internment Camp 371, I believe they'll _enjoy _having this prisoner returned to them" The First looked with malice at the unconscious human, before signalling to the Fourth to drag him to the detention cells.

XXX

Jadzia woke up with the worst headache. It took her a while to re-orientate herself, _what happened?_

She slowly picked herself up on her feet and made her way to her console, trying to see if she can fly. No thrusters, impulse drive or warp. She was stuck here, she discovered with annoyance that soon turned to fear as she remembered the Jem'Hadar.

"Julian!" She turned round to face the back of the shuttle to see if, by a slim chance, that Julian was still here. She felt Dax squirm inside her, _this is bad. _

She sent a distress signal and went to collect the medkit to treat her burn, whilst on the way she discovered a small puddle of blood. She didn't need a scanner to know it was Julian's. She closed her eyes as a single tear ran down her cheek, she felt so useless. What should she do? The shuttle had no power at all, she couldn't reroute anything apart from oxygen, which was a necessity, and artificial gravity, which wouldn't be enough.

Even the replicators were shut down, as much as she was annoyed, she was interested in knowing exactly how the Jem'Hadar could shut down all the systems with one phaser blast.

Grabbing the dermal regenerator and treating her injury, she sat and waited for someone to pick her up.

XXX

The Dominion Ship had made it back to 371, its prisoner was still unconscious as he was handed over, they hadn't bothered cleaning his face. One of the Jem'Hadar on the asteroid hoisted Julian over their shoulder and carried him to his old barracks.

Once he was ungently put on the ground, he began to struggle into consciousness, frowning and turning his head side to side. Since the Jem'Hadar didn't have anything else to do, he stayed where he was, amused by the pathetic Human's fight. Just as his eyes fluttered open, the Jem'Hadar nudged him with his foot, urging him into consciousness.

As Julian regained consciousness, he immediately knew where he was, the smell was unmistakable. His eyes fully opened and the first thing he saw was a Jem'Hadar, staring down at him with a smirk on his face.

"Welcome back" was all he said as he strolled out and locked the door behind him

Julian groaned and rolled over on his belly, the world was spinning and he had to shut his eyes. He couldn't hear anyone else, so he assumed he was alone. He pushed himself up on his feet and leaned on a nearby wall for support as the world gave one last spin.

Once he could see clearly, he discovered he was indeed alone. He also discovered that everything he and his fellow prisoners had done before had been undone. The wall panel leading to the old life support systems was boarded shut, he couldn't do anything. He prayed that Jadzia was fine and they would find him soon.

Walking to his old bed, he laid down and waited for what was to come. It wasn't long until he fell into an unrestful sleep.

XXX

_He awoke to noise, people speaking and he couldn't understand a thing they were saying. When he reached towards consciousness a bit more, he began to understand a bit more. The voiced were talking about memories, changelings, The Dominion. _

_He was so confused. Where was he?_

_The last thing he remembered was preparing for bed, going through the talk he gave at the Medical Conference the day before. Now he felt as if he was strapped down to the mattress. His feelings were confirmed as he attempted to move his arms, but couldn't. Panicking now, he began to struggle even more against the bonds._

_"He's awake, we can begin with the memory transferal" A voice he didn't recognise was talking as if he wasn't even there. _

_Julian was about to say something but before he could breathe fourth one word, he felt something on his head, something heavy. _What is that? Where am I? _Nothing happened for a while and Julian released the breath he was holding. Then all at once he heard a humming sound and a sharp shooting pain in both his temples._

_He screamed, or he thought he was screaming. It hurt, he had no idea what was happening, and he was so scared. _

_Just then a memory popped up in his mind, he thought it strange how that particular memory had suddenly appeared. It was a completely random memory, of him in the Infirmary treating a broken arm. Another memory popped up, and another, random memories from all through his life on DS9. _

_The last memory he saw was seeing Jadzia for the first time, before he lost all sensation and became unconscious._

XXX

_An undeterminable time later, he awoke on something uncomfortable. Remembering what had happened before, he tried to sit up. There were no bonds, and he sat up so quickly, he promptly fell back down to the floor as bright stars appeared in his eyes._

_"I think he's awake" A gruff male voice said._

_Julian was trying his best to stop his nausea; he was just so dizzy, even though his eyes were closed. He gave a go at opening his eyes, praying that the world would stay still. He was greeted by a Klingon, sitting right in front of him with a look of concern on his face._

_"I know you don't feel well, memory transferal is not a pleasant experience. Keep your eyes closed and try and sleep it off. We'll explain everything when you're feeling better" He felt a pat on his shoulder and everything went black as he fell asleep._

XXX

_Julian was trying to comprehend what he was hearing. He awoke thirty minutes ago and had been informed by Martok that he was now a prisoner of the Dominion and a Changeling has taken his place back on DS9. _

_Martok then moved on to tell him that he himself had been taken as well, whilst hunting Sabre bear on Kang's Summit and that a Changeling had also taken his place. Julian revealed to him that, who he originally thought was Martok, was the cause of countless Klingon's deaths._ _Just as Julian was going to ask some more questions, their door was opened. A Jem'Hadar walked in with two others behind him, rifles at the ready, and stopped in front of their prisoners. _ _"The new one will fight" was all they said._ _Julian didn't know what this meant but before he could ask, Martok stood in front of him and told the Jem'Hadar Julian was too weak, and that he would fight instead._ _Julian was grateful, although he didn't particularly like Martok fighting for him, but he knew he would not stand a chance, genetic enhancements or not._ _God, what would they do to him if they found out about his little secret?_ XXX Julian awoke with a start, his breathing was erratic and he could feel the sweat coming from his body. He hadn't had that dream for ages, and he didn't miss it. He was still haunted by memories of his time at 371. Now things were even worse; they had found him and brought him back. They left Jadzia, but took him back to this hell hole and he was incredibly worried why. He slowly got up off the bed and walked around, feeling stiffness on his lips and cheeks, he went to investigate with his hands and winced in pain as he touched his bruised nose. _At least it isn't broken, just badly bruised. _ He sighed and sat back down on the bed, twiddling his thumbs as he waited for whatever was going to happen.

XXX

"It's definitely him! Our scans confirmed it!" The First was explaining to the Vorta "He's the Human who escaped this very camp one year ago"

The Vorta was sitting down at his desk, thinking. How should he punish this Human for getting away? He _could _put him in the ring, but it wouldn't be a fair fight, he wouldn't last one minute. He was still thinking when another Jem'Hadar came in, out of breath.

"Sorry to disturb you. I heard something very interesting from one of the prisoners" He waited for a signal to continue. The Vorta bowed his head "Two of the prisoners were talking about the Human, the one who we just brought back here. They said that shortly after he returned to Starfleet, he was discovered to be…" He broke off, a look of excitement on his face, but he didn't crack a smile.

"Discovered to be what?" The First asked impatiently.

"According to the two prisoners, this Human, a Doctor Julian Bashir, was uncovered as genetically enhanced! He's stronger, smarter, and faster than most Humans!"

The Vorta stared the two Jem'Hadar for a moment before he slowly got up out his chair and walked towards the door, stopping at the entrance "Take me to him"

XXX

Julian was just getting comfortable on the hard bed when the door opened. He looked up to see two Jem'Hadar and a Vorta strolled in. The Jem'Hadar stayed on either side of the door as the Vorta walked up to face Julian, who slowly stood up.

"Welcome back, Doctor" the Vorta said sarcastically, Julian tensed up, not trusting the Vorta one little bit.

"Why just bring me back? Why not my crew mate?" He asked carefully.

The Vorta snorted and took a menacing step towards Julian "Don't ask questions, Doctor. I give orders and I don't have to explain why I do things!" he was just short of yelling and Julian was taken back at how easily angry the Vorta could get.

Having mentally composed himself, the Vorta walked back towards the door, stopping either side of the Jem'Hadar before turning his head back towards Julian with a smile "It seems…that you're little secret has reached our ears, Doctor. I am rather excited to see how a genetically enhanced Human can fight a genetically enhanced alien…" With that hanging in the air, he laughed and walked out the door with the Jem'Hadar in tow, leaving Julian frozen on the spot, staring at the door.

XXX

"I want you" the Vorta pointed to the Second "to fight him first, get prepared, he may just surprise you. He won't be as strong, but he can last a lot longer than you can. As soon as the match begins, don't hesitate, be the first to throw the punch. You-" he pointed to the First "-grab the Human and bring him here!"

"At once" The First bowed and went to collect Julian as the Second stood in the circle and began warming up.

XXX

The First didn't give Julian time to get up from the bed, he immediately marched in and grasped his arm in a bruising grip and shoved him out the door. Julian was scared now, he knew that he wouldn't last long and prayed that rescue would come before it was too late.

As soon as he saw his opponent, he began to struggle, trying to reason with the First, but he was thrown into the ring. He knew there was nothing he could do but fight, so he stood up on shaky legs and looked at the Second with a look of defiance.

"You don't scare me, Human." He taunted as he began to circle Julian.

Julian began trying to calculate the Jem'Hadar's weaknesses and vulnerabilities when the claxon went. Barely had he time to acknowledge it, that the Jem'Hadar ran up to him and delivered a solid punch to his right cheek and knocked him out. His nose was bleeding again, as was his lip.

"STOP" The Vorta yelled. He sounded happy, yet annoyed "That was excellent, Second. Very fast reflexes. Next time, don't punch so hard. Look at him" He looked at the fallen Doctor with false sad eyes "he's out cold. He'll be like that for a while and I don't want to waste any medicine on him to wake him up. Next time-" he turned his gaze back to the Second "-hurt him, just don't knock him out. I want to see what he does to fight back"

At the Seconds nod of understanding, the Vorta signalled the Fourth and Fifth to drag the Doctors limp form back to his barracks, dropping him on the dirty floor as soon as they were a foot inside. Slamming the door behind them, Julian didn't so much as twitch.

XXX

Once again, he found himself on the floor, greeted by _that _lingering smell. He didn't know what happened; he never thought someone could move so quickly. One minute he heard the claxon, the next, he was here. It was ridiculous, why did they even bother putting him in the ring, why not just strap him to a chair and beat him?

Groaning, he stood up and walked towards the bed, putting his head in his hands as he sat down. He could feel warm liquid run from his nose, _blood, _he didn't even need to see to know. The pain from his nose was enough, _even more bruised_. He tasted blood and wasn't surprised to feel his lower lip swollen and _incredibly _painful.

He just wanted to go unnoticed, like he always did in his life. He was just another ordinary Human, gifted, yes, but no one suspected anything _wrong._ He wondered how the Vorta even knew about his genetic background.

He heard a gruff voice outside his door "You have thirty minutes to recover then you're back in the ring"

He fell back onto his bed, closing his eyes and hoping this was all a horrible nightmare

XXX

The Second was pacing up and down, urging the time to go faster. This time, he would let the Human fight back; he wanted to know _exactly _how he fought.

He stopped his pacing and walked up to the Vorta, who was standing in the ring with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked up when he saw the Jem'Hadar marching up to him "What is it, Second?" he asked half heartily.

"I want to fight now! He's probably awake, I'll collect him myself" He waited for the Vorta to grant his request before he made his way to where the Human was.

The Vorta waved his hand in a "go ahead" manner; the Second nodded and marched off to the barracks that held the Human.

XXX

Julian sighed and began wiping off the blood from his face, wondering why he even bothered. It'll just be covered in blood again soon anyway.

He was just about to start pacing, when the door was thrown open. He jumped and turned round, seeing the Second stare at him "It's time for round two, Human. Next time, I'll let you fight back"

He abruptly turned round and strolled out, obviously meaning for Julian to follow him. Which he did.

He would put up a good fight, he was so scared, but he wouldn't let anyone know it. He held his head up high and followed the Jem'Hadar, right into the ring and started calculating when and where he was going to hit.

"I'll let you take the first punch, Human" the Second taunted, not moving, just standing on the spot with his arms raised either side of his body, leaving his entire front vulnerable.

Julian gave a little smirk and delivered a punch to the Jem'Hadar's stomach, hoping he'll double over. He punched with all his might but the Second didn't even wince. He gave a chuckle and slapped Julian round the face, not hard enough to cause him to stagger back, but hard enough to leave a red mark. "Fight harder!"

_He couldn't! _He just punched as hard as he could, and nothing happened. Maybe a kick would be more effective. He brought his leg up to deliver a blow to the Jem'Hadar's left knee, intent on dislocating it. The Second did not expect the move and he went down on his other knee in pain. He squeezed his eyes shut, his knee was throbbing, but he could still bend it, it wasn't dislocated.

Julian's eyes went wide; he was surprised the Second went down after such a simple move. He brought up all his courage and looked at the Jem'Hadar "Hard enough for you?" His stomach was churning, he was sure he just signed his death certificate.

The Jem'Hadar did something utterly unexpected. He laughed. He rose from the floor, leaning on his right leg. "It's just a bruise. Nothing compared to what I'll do to you. Now, wouldn't you say it was my turn?" He marched up to Julian and delivered two punches to the doctor's stomach and chest.

He went down, fast. The wind had been knocked out his lungs; he struggled to suck in air. He stayed down for a bit longer, trying to think of a move to disable his opponent. Willing his heart rate down, he stood up and pressed the button on the outer ring, he was intent on fighting this alien.

"Now it's your turn" He strolled up to Julian and towered over him "Go ahead"

Julian brought his knee up to the Second's groin and the move incapacitated him for a short while. Julian took this opportunity to grab the Jem'Hadar's left arm and yank it down with all his might. He heard the joint pop and the Second groan in pain.

He allowed himself a smile as the Jem'Hadar was now only able to use his right side. He was at a disadvantage whereas Julian could move freely.

That was until the Second ran at him, tackling him to the ground and straddling his chest. He began punching his face with his right arm, punching the Human's face, again and again until his own knuckles began to bleed. This _Human _humiliated him; he didn't think he would be that strong to dislocate his arm!

Julian could see stars, everything was pain. He just wanted to fall unconscious, but his genetics would prevent that _just _yet. Blood was pouring out his nose, his mouth was bleeding and he felt his right eye begin to swell.

The Second hoisted Julian up and held him by his collar so Julian's feet weren't touching the ground. "You're a strong one!" he taunted as he gently lowered Julian's feet to the ground, only to grasp his right arm and bring it down on his own knee. The audible _snap _was echoed throughout the establishment.

Julian screamed! He felt as if his arm was broken clean off, the Second pushed him to the ground and looked down at him "That was with me having only one arm to use. Imagine if I had _both _my arms!" He laughed and knelt down beside the Human, waiting for him to begin the fight again.

He had to close his eyes against the pain; he's never been in so much pain! He promised himself the next time a patient comes in with a broken arm, he'll be more sympathetic. He giggled then, _next time, _he was so sure there wouldn't be a _next time._

He risked opening his eyes and saw the Second staring at him with a cruel smile. He moved his gaze to his arm, and blanched. No wonder he was in agony! He could see bone protruding from his skin, blood was pouring out freely and he was sure he would bleed out.

Once he saw the Human stare at him, he decided now was as good a time as any to begin the fight again. But then the Human's eyes drifted to his arm, and widened. Laughing at the shock on the Human's face, he brought his foot down, hard, on Julian's right hand, smashing his wrist.

Julian yelled, he just wanted to lose consciousness, the pain was unbearable. This Jem'Hadar was _strong! _He was causing so much damage with one arm and one leg, Julian foresaw his own death.

If he _did _survive, he knew his arm would be useless to repair. His wrist was smashed; he already felt the muscles in his arm spasm.

He then sensed something, the air went still and the shadow of the Jem'Hadar disappeared. He wouldn't open his eyes, if he did, blood would probably fall in them anyway.

_"Step away slowly" _

Julian heard a voice, a familiar voice, one he couldn't pinpoint at this moment in time. His head was throbbing so badly, his arm was in agony.

_"Step away or we'll shoot"_

That voice! It was a man's voice, with an accent. What accent? He just couldn't think straight and he let his mind drift.

XXX

"I said step away!" Miles threatened, pointing his phaser at the Jem'Hadar, who was still standing next to Julian, blood on his knuckles and a horrible smile on his face.

"He's a prisoner! He belongs here!" The Second shouted. It looked like the _entire _crew of Deep Space Nine was here, all pointing their phasers at the Jem'Hadar and Vorta.

"This phaser is not on stun, believe you me, if you don't step away, I'll shoot!" Miles took a step closer and the Jem'Hadar stepped away from the fallen doctor, seemingly giving up.

Miles sighed and signalled the Defiant to lock onto all of them and beam them away; he began to holster his weapon, when the Jem'Hadar struck.

XXX

He wouldn't give up now! He was watching the new Human carefully, looking for any vulnerability. He slowly grabbed his knife and held it hidden, waiting for the perfect time.

There! The new Human was holstering his weapon, _stupid! _He yelled, dropped to his knee and brought the knife down to the injured Human's chest, driving the weapon up to the hilt on the left side. Blood pouring out immediately, staining the Seconds hand.

Julian's eyes flew open and he saw that evil smile once more before everything went blue, then black.

XXX

"NO!" Miles shouted as he saw the Jem'Hadar bring down the knife to his best friend's chest, Julian's eyes flew open, his face losing all tension as he went completely still. Right before the transporter took hold of them all.

Once back on board, he shouted "HELP!" It was all Miles could say as he ran to Julian's side, trying to stop the bleeding. Blood was seeping through his fingers and forming a puddle beside him "I NEED HELP!"

Julian's eyes were closed, his face was so pale, the blood was the only colour on his skin.

The med team who were waiting sprinted up and began the treatment, they took over and one nurse began applying pressure to his chest, noticing that some of the blood wasn't coming from that wound. Looking down, they noticed his arm, and the blood that came from it "We need to put him in stasis and wait for another doctor to treat him!"

They beamed straight to the Defiant's sickbay and immediately put Julian in stasis. There was no way he would survive the trip if they hadn't.

After running a scan on Julian, their worst fears were confirmed, the knife had pierced his heart, and he would either need a replacement heart or an artificial one. There was not fixing such a wound, the blade went clean through. His arm was _bad, _but it should be repairable.

XXX

Miles and the rest of the crew on the Defiant, there were at least 80, were at their work stations, in case of an enemy ship approaching.

Once they were safely out of enemy territory, Miles walked to sickbay to check on his friend.

He saw Julian's nurses on biobeds, sleeping or resting. A few were sitting at terminals, doing reports. He didn't want to distract them; he knew they wanted something to occupy their minds apart from their boss's awful injuries.

Walking to where the stasis was, he stopped and stared at his friend. Looking exactly the same as before, they couldn't risk bringing him out of stasis to mend his arm. The knife was still in his chest, reducing the amount of blood loss from his heart.

He sighed and sat beside Julian, staring at his pale, bloody face. He couldn't see any part of his face that _wasn't _pale and bloody, that Jem'Hadar had been brutal, and Miles wished he could have killed him.

He shook his head; he went there to get Julian, which they did. Although, he couldn't say he exactly wanted to find him like _this._

The ETA to get back to DS9 was at 1545, which was just over one hour away. As Miles had nothing to do, he sat by his friends side, silently praying to every God he could think of.

XXX

Julian was beamed straight to the Infirmary, where a doctor from Bajor was waiting. Things were immediately tense and complicated as soon as the stasis field was removed.

Julian was put on an artificial cardiac machine, keeping the blood pumping round his body as the doctor was trying to fix his arm.

Having done all he could for the time being, he had Julian put back into stasis as he ordered an artificial. It was the only way Julian would survive.

XXX

Just over a day later, the replacement organ had arrived and the Bajoran doctor went straight to work on Julian's heart, removing the damaged one and inserting the new one took over four hours of complicated surgery.

Checking Julian's read outs once more, he walked out of the surgery and sat at his desk. He was exhausted! He had never had to deal with something so awful, heart transplant! After removing the surgical gloves, he put his face in his hands and stayed like it until he heard a cough to get his attention.

Lifting his head up, he turned to the entrance of his office to see Sisko looking at him. He stood up and bowed his head "Captain, I've just literally finished his operation. I haven't had time change my scrubs" he waved his hands over the bloody garments "Just give me a minute, Sir" he wondered off to clean up whilst Sisko sat down.

The doctor walked back in, wearing his normal clothes and gave Sisko a tired smile. "It's OK, Sir. Everything went to plan. We need to wait to see if his body rejects the new heart before I can say he's completely out of the woods. Tricky business, heart transplant. I've only done one twice, and that wasn't as complicated. The blade went clean through his heart, he is incredibly lucky."

Sisko raised himself off his seat and walked towards the surgery room, looking at his CMO lying on the biobed. He felt so much anger towards the Dominion, even more now that they had taken Julian back!

He would never tell anyone, but shortly after Julian originally arrived from 371, he went to talk to him in his office. Sisko was pushing for as much information as possible when Julian just cracked! He didn't burst out crying, but he _was _visibly upset. He didn't blame him; after all, no one even knew he was missing. Everyone he had considered to be his friends actually believed the Changeling was him, for thirty seven days!

Sisko had taken him by the shoulder and tried to calm him down, when Julian began shaking. Shock? He sat him down in a chair and began talking about anything, _anything _that would take Julian's mind off everything that had happened.

And now he would have to go through it all again, and it would be a lot worse as he would always be physically reminded with his artificial heart.

He closed his eyes and walked back to his own office, telling the doctor to tell him of any changes on the way out.

XXX

Two weeks passed with no complications, when the doctor decided it was time to induce consciousness, he called Sisko to come to the Infirmary.

Not long after, Sisko strolled in and went to the back where Julian was. The Bajoran doctor gave him a smile and moved to give Julian a hypospray.

As soon as the drug was released into his system, his eyes fluttered, he frowned and turned his head away from the light.

"Computer, dim the lights by thirty percent. Julian, open your eyes" the doctor said.

Julian's eyes fluttered open; the first thing he saw was the worried look of his Captain. "Capt'n wha' happn'd?" He found it difficult to speak.

"Just relax, Julian. You've been through a lot, I'll let Doctor Nilos explain everything" He smiled and took a step back to allow Nilos to talk to Julian.

"Julian. Do you remember anything?" Nilos spoke as he sat down next to Julian.

He remembered, he doubted he would ever forget, how could he? Although he _did _struggle to remember what happened after his arm was broken. Looking down, he discovered it looked normal, if a bit pink from scarring. Looking back at Nilos he began to speak "My arm…"

He was cut off by the doctor "You were unconscious for two weeks, Julian. Your body suffered a lot of damage, the bones of your arm and wrist were near enough irreparable, but it wasn't impossible. Your bones have been reset, and it may feel a bit stiff. Do you remember what happened right before you were beamed aboard?"

Julian tried to rotate his wrist, indeed finding it to be stiff. He attempted to sit up but Nilos gently pushed him back down. "Don't exert yourself, Julian." He decided to tell Julian what happened "Julian. Miles and the rest of the Defiant beamed onto the asteroid, to save you. You were in bad shape, but nothing we couldn't handle. It was when the Jem'Hadar brought out a knife; Miles wasn't quick enough to stun him before he stabbed you, in the chest. Thankfully it was immediately before you were beamed back so you were put in stasis. Your heart was pierced, it was useless trying to fix it, and you would have died, so we ordered an artificial one. The surgery to remove the damaged heart and replace it with the new one went smoothly, but don't over work yourself"

Julian was shocked into immobility, he has a new heart? He reached down and lifted his gown, seeing a scar on his chest, from the original wound and from the surgery. He felt different, he felt _weird. _

Closing his eyes, he asked to be alone. After Nilos informed him he'll be off duty for another two weeks, he and Sisko strolled out.

_Two weeks. _He mused to himself. _That's enough time to go through it all. I'm alright, I'm alive. And I'll destroy 371 if it's the last thing I ever do…_

END

XXX

_**Did you like it? I hope you did! I didn't intend on writing such a long one but it just kept on going and going and going...**_

_**FYI! I'm having trouble with my poison and holosuite fics so I'm going to leave them for later.**_

_**I've also made a writing friend in AMERICA! *wooop* We're working together on a fic so keep your eyes open, it's gonna be gooooood **_

_**Next up...**_

_**"He knew what was going to happen and he knew he didn't have time to run away, so he just acted on instinct and turned round, showing his back to the computer panel and protecting Molly from the explosion.**_

_**A bang! A loud bang echoed in his ears before a burning sensation spread all over his back and he felt himself flying through the air. Losing all sensation before he hit the ground"**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**I passed my theory test! WOOOP! To celebrate, I posted this story earlier than I planned.**_

_**I've got three stories going on at the moment. This one, AlwaysAbby's collaboration and SeverusPotterSnapes unfinished story I'm continuing.**_

_**This is AlwaysAbby's suggestion, AKA My Writing Friend in America!**_

_**oh and *pssst* I don't own Star Trek :O**_

XXX

Miles and Molly were in the cargo bay, unloading engineering supplies. He was originally going to unload them himself, as there were only a few crates, but Molly whined about being bored and how she wanted to help.

Of course, it made the boring task more interesting, with Molly constantly asking what things were and what they were for. Miles didn't grow annoyed; he enjoyed telling his daughter about his job and everything he does for the station.

Just when they had finished unloading the last crate, Julian walked in.

"Good Morning, Chief!" he said cheerfully and strolled in, he noticed Molly and waved at her.

Molly went red and lowered her head to the floor, swinging her foot back and forth.

"What brings you here, Julian?" Miles asked as he put the crate back, dusted off his hands on his trousers and smiled at his friend.

"Oh, I just finished my shift and wondered if you wanted a drink and to play some darts in Quarks?"

"Yeah, let me just take Molly back and I'll meet you there" He picked up Molly and started for the door when his combadge chirped.

Shifting Molly in his arms, he tapped his badge "O'Brien here"

_"Chief, you're needed in Ops right away" _Kira's voice came through

He lowered Molly to the ground "On my way, O'Brien out." He ended the transmission, before looking at his friend "Julian, do you think maybe you could…"

"Say no more, Chief" Julian raised his hands to stop him talking "I'll take Molly back to Kieko and I'll meet you in Quarks later on" He smiled and went to take hold of Molly's hand.

"Cheers, Julian." He knelt in front of his daughter "Now, you be good for Uncle Julian, alright?" At her shy nod, he kissed her forehead and walked out.

"Where's your mum then, Molly?" Julian stood looking down at her; she looked up and immediately looked back down again. Frowning, he let go of her hand and knelt beside her "What's wrong, Molly?"

Molly didn't answer; she was still looking at the ground, swaying slightly.

"Come on, Molly. You can tell me!" He rubbed her shoulder and gave her a smile, she raised her head and looked him in the eye, before she smiled and put her face in his shoulder, giggling.

Julian chuckled and gave her a hug "You silly thing!"

She continued laughing into his shoulder.

"Are you hungry? I can…" He began to speak, but was cut off by the lights going out. "Whoa! Molly, are you alright?" He wasn't sure if she was scared of the dark.

She lifted her head and looked around, it wasn't pitch black, but it was still quite difficult to see around her "Yes"

He stood back up and tapped his combadge, calling OPs, there was no answer. He didn't want to worry Molly so he just smiled and took her hand, walking to the door.

When they got to the door, it wouldn't open; Julian sighed and walked to see if he could use the manual override. When that didn't work either, he tried to call Miles.

Nothing

Running out of options, he just decided to sit back against the wall and wait, calling Molly over to sit with him.

"Let's stay here for a bit, okay? What do you want to do?" He acted like nothing was amiss.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, going red again "I don't know"

"Oh come on, Molly! You must be bored! Do you want to play a game?" His eyes sparkled when she looked at him, a huge smile on her face.

"My daddy plays Hide and Seek with me" she said, still smiling.

"Right then! We'll play Hide and Seek. Do you want to hide first?" As an answer, she turned and ran further into the cargo bay. Julian smiled and began counting down loudly "1…2…3…"

XXX

Molly was so happy! She loved Uncle Julian; he always made her happy and laugh. She was trying to find the perfect place to hide when the lights came back on. Smiling, she ran into the shadows and hid in an empty crate. Giggling when she heard Julian shout "Ready or not, here I come!"

XXX

Sitting up, he looked around the cargo bay. The fact that the lights were on once again made it easier for him. He tried contacting OPs again but still no answer. Sighing, he began his search for Molly.

Walking a bit further ahead and he knew where she was; he could hear giggling and saw one crate in the distance move _ever _so slightly. He lightly cursed his genetic engineering for ruining this game for him, but he was playing it for Molly and was purposefully taking his time looking in every nook and cranny

XXX

Molly peeped out of her hiding place, she could see Julian, looking _everywhere _for her. She felt proud of herself; she had found the perfect hiding place and he would never find her. She was just about to get back into the crate, when the station shook. It wasn't a big shake, but it still frightened her. She ran out of the crate and straight to Julian, who was facing the other way and didn't see her. She grabbed hold of his legs and hugged with all her might.

Julian was startled at the sudden feeling of something grabbing his leg, but looking down, he smiled and picked Molly up "It's okay; it was just a little shake. I'm sure everything is fine! Where were you hiding? I couldn't find you anywhere!" He tried to change the subject.

She was crying, he noticed. Her tears making his shoulder wet "Shhhh, now. Everything's _just _fine" He began rubbing her back and walking around the cargo bay.

XXX

She had stopped her crying shortly after and he put her on the floor, bending down to be level with her "Are you alright?"

She nodded and began walking to a computer panel, he let her, they weren't even on and it would take her mind off of things. He smiled when she began poking and prodding the panel.

He had looked away for _one second_ and the next thing he knew, he was sprinting towards Molly. She had removed a wall panel, revealing wires and electrics and was now about to pull one out. She didn't have the chance as Julian picked her up "Careful, Molly! You don't know what could have happened! Promise me you want touch anything, okay?" He gently chided her.

She just nodded, pouting her lower lip and crossing her arms.

Just then, the station shook again, Julian managed to remain his balance, still holding Molly. He heard a high pitch whine, frowning, he turned around and noticed the panel Molly had removed was smoking, sparks were spitting out.

He knew what was going to happen and he knew he didn't have time to run away, so he just acted on instinct and turned round, showing his back to the computer panel and protecting Molly from the explosion.

A bang! A loud bang echoed in his ears before a burning sensation spread all over his back and he felt himself flying through the air. Losing all sensation before he hit the ground.

XXX

Shortly after Julian spun around, the computer exploded. Energy discharges escaped and one hit Julian's back, throwing him halfway across the cargo bay. He had inadvertently let go of Molly and she fell to the ground, covering her head and screaming as the computer panel continued to emit discharges.

It all stopped! It all just suddenly ceased. She picked her head up and looked around, seeing smoke left over from the explosions. Her heart was thundering away in her chest and she slowly got up off the floor.

She didn't know what to do! She began walking away from the smoke and stopped when a pain went up her hand. She looked down and saw a cut, not a deep cut, but it _did _run from her little finger right to her thumb. _Uncle Julian will know what to do!_

She shouted his name, expecting him to walk out the smoke, pick her up and heal her hand. She just stood there, until the smoke had cleared but she didn't see him, where was he? Was he playing Hide and Seek?

She was hurt and she didn't want to play any games "Uncle Julian?" she called out, trying to make him know where she was "Uncle Julian, I don't want to play. I hurt my hand"

She began walking forward, turning her head side to side trying to find him. "Uncle Julian?" She was getting worried now, where was he? He couldn't be _gone. _He was a Doctor. He was meant to stay and help.

She was about to call his name again when she saw something. It looked like Uncle Julian! Was he sleeping? She ran to him, calling his name on the way and telling him to wake up.

He didn't so much as twitch, frowning she knelt down and looked at his face "Wake up, sleepy head" She went to nudge his shoulder when she noticed for the first time that his back was visible. The back of his jumpsuit was completely gone, revealing nasty burns all over his back.

"Uncle Julian?" Molly's voice was shaking, he was meant to be fine, and he was meant to look after her! Why was he lying on the ground?

She didn't want to see his back anymore, it scared her. She could see white and she didn't even want to consider what it was. She mustered up all her strength and pushed Julian onto his back, she wanted to see his handsome face.

She was disappointed; his face was covered in dust and blood. It looked like he hit his head. She began to clean the dust off and discovered a cut, just on his hairline that was rapidly congealing blood. She didn't know what to do! She had never seen how a cut was dealt with; she just cleaned as much of it off as possible with her sleeves. She wanted to his face, the face she liked, she _loved. _

She's always fancied Julian; he was so nice to her. He told her stories, played with her…

She started crying and laid down next to him, she rested her head on his chest and was lulled to sleep by his breathing.

XXX

"What happened?" Miles said once he regained his balance after the second shake.

"Computer Panels are exploding throughout the station, no casualties reported. I think…" Kira's explanation was cut off by a bleeping on her console "Reading another explosion in cargo bay four"

Miles heart leaped in his chest. He couldn't move, time seemed to have stopped all around him. He eventually found his voice "W-what" had he heard right? _Please let it be an error._

"There was another explosion in cargo bay four. Are you alright, Chief?" Kira looked confused

"We need to get these doors opened NOW!" Miles shouted as he moved to the doors and began pounding on them.

Jadzia came walking towards him from her station "Chief, what's wrong?"

"Get these _bloody _doors open!" was all he said.

"Miles! What's going on?" Dax physically made him face her.

"Molly was in cargo bay four! With Julian! I need to make sure they're alright!" Miles began pounding on the door again.

Jadzia gasped and felt her stomach churn "Chief, sit down, pounding on the doors won't help. We need _you _to help open them again, but first we need communications back online. Come on" She pulled him away from the door and sat him down by his station.

"I'm sure they're okay, Julian will look after her. Right now, you need to focus on communications, then you can speak to them" Kira supplied from her post and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I hope so" he mumbled, he hated not knowing if his daughter and best friend were okay.

XXX

Molly woke to silence; she was still in the cargo bay. Getting off Julian, she peered down at him. He looked the same, but at least the blood had stopped running down his face.

She looked down at her own hand, it hurt but it was no longer bleeding, it was already beginning to scab over.

"Julian" she whispered, all she wanted was that he answer her and look after her. He was an adult! Why was he sleeping right now, and why couldn't she wake him up?

"Please wake up, Uncle Julian" she tried again, a little louder.

Nothing

She sighed and brought her knees to her chest, holding them with her arms and rocking backwards and forwards. Looking for any sign of wakefulness.

XXX

"Communications are almost online, just a few more seconds…" Miles reported, tapping the console as he spoke "ah, there we are" he gave a small smile and swiftly tapped his combadge "O'Brien to Bashir"

He double checked that the comms were working and tried again, a little panic in his voice "O'Brien to Bashir, please respond, Julian"

Jadzia could sense he was getting angry, and didn't want to get in the way of his wrath so she just spoke from her computer "There's probably a simple explanation for Julian not answering his combadge, maybe it fell off?"

Miles leaned his head on his console, trying to will the tears away. Just when a familiar voice came filled his ears.

"_Daddy?"_

XXX

Molly was still rocking, staring at Julian's face when she heard her dad's voice. She jumped up and stared at the door.

No one was there! She was confused, where was his voice coming from. She looked back at the doctor and noticed his combadge.

Kneeling down, she tapped it "Daddy?"

XXX

Miles' head shot up "Molly! Are you alright?" he near enough shouted.

"Daddy!" Her voice revealed such excitement and at the same time, panic.

She sounded lively; he blew his breath out and closed his eyes when it suddenly dawned on him. He called _Julian's _combadge. Why did Molly answer?

"Molly, where's Julian?"

XXX

_"Molly, where's Julian?"_

Molly sniffed and looked back down at Julian, he was still asleep.

"The wall blew up, he's asleep. His back is hurt. He won't wake up!" She wiped a tear away.

_"Molly, go to Julian and do something for me."_

She knelt down beside Julian "I'm here"

_"Put your fingers to his throat, do you feel a thudding against your fingers?"_

She did as she was told, not sure _exactly _what she was doing. Molly put her fingers to Julian's throat; she couldn't feel anything "I can't feel anything"

_"Where about on his throat are you feeling? Are you touching the side of his throat, down from his ear?"_

She was crying now, she didn't know what she was doing. She moved her fingers to the side of his throat, feeling a weak thudding. "I feel a thud, not very often, though"

_"Okay Molly, now, but your hand on his chest, does it rise and fall?"_

"Yes"

_"You said his back is hurt. There's a medical team on the way, stay put. I'll be there shortly"_

His voice disappeared and she closed her eyes, all she could was wait.

XXX

Miles had managed to get the doors working; he immediately ran through and sprinted the entire way to the cargo bay.

The medical team arrived just after he had and together they got the door open and rushed in

"Molly?!"

He could see two figures, one was deadly still and the other was rushing up towards him.

"Daddy" Molly jumped up and he hugged her fiercely.

"Everything's okay, take us to Julian"

She ran back to the fallen doctor. Miles and the med team not far behind.

Miles dropped down and re-checked his pulse, before picking Molly up and letting the professionals do their job.

_"Kira to O'Brien. Transporters are back online"_

"Beam everyone to the Infirmary"

_"Energising"_

XXX

The nurses had Julian on a biobed immediately, lying him down on his stomach to tend to his back. Another nurse walked up to Molly and noticed her hand "Do you want me to take a look at that?"

All she did was nod and was lead to another biobed and her father hoisted her up onto it.

"This won't hurt a bit" The nurse smiled as she began to run the dermal regenerator over the small cut "There! All done" She looked at Miles and walked away.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" Miles jumped on the biobed and sat next to her, she hugged him tightly

"Why didn't Julian wake up when I asked him to? He was meant to look after me"

Miles struggled to find the right words for a moment "Julian couldn't wake up, Molly. He was hurt. Believe me; he would have taken care of you if you could have." He tried to lift her spirits up; looking up in triumph "Can you imagine his face when he's told it was _you _that took care of _him? _Molly O'Brien, taking care of a full grown man! I'm so proud" He smiled and hugged her close.

She didn't say anything, looking down, he discovered she was asleep. He gently lowered her to the biobed and laid next to her.

XXX

"Chief?"

Miles turned his head to the voice; he didn't even hear anyone approach. "Yes?"

"Doctor Bashirs awake, he wants to talk to Molly" one of Julian's nurses said.

"Thank you, I'll be right there" He sat up and looked at Molly, still asleep. He hated to wake her so he left her and went to talk to his friend.

"Hey, Julian" He said as he walked in and saw Julian sitting up in bed.

"Chief! Where's Molly?"

Miles sat down beside him "She's asleep. Are you alright?"

Julian closed his eyes "I don't know what happened. I knew the panel was going to go, but didn't have enough time to run out of the way. The nurses told me my back was so badly burnt and cut that my spine was visible! Was Molly okay when you found us? How long were we down there?"

Miles raised his hand before Julian could ask any more questions "Julian. Molly was a bit shaken up, wondering why you wouldn't wake up to help her. You were only down there for half hour, but you know kids. She probably felt she was all alone for days! Have they given you anything for the pain?"

Julian laughed "I need one more skin graph as the burns were pretty bad. They've given me a pain reliever and a sleep inducer so I should be asleep when they do the surgery shortly" Miles could see Julian's eyes beginning to droop and patted him on the shoulder before he got off the bed.

He walked to the door and turned round, seeing Julian's eyes close "I'll send her to talk to you tomorrow. Thank you, Julian. You risked your life to save my daughter. I'll never forget it" He smiled as he left the doctor alone and picked up Molly, taking her back to their quarters to get well deserved sleep before they visited Julian the next day.

END

_**I hope you all liked it! wooop**_

_**Seriously guys, go and read Mijra's stories! They are AMAZING and her new story is brilliant so read. NOW! She deserves more reviews.**_

_**The poison and holosuite chapters are put on hold for the time being so this one is going to be next-**_

_**"Blood. Quite a lot of it, was pooling beneath Julian's head. Miles looked at the doctor's face and noticed how clammy he was.**_

_**He acted on instinct and grabbed a napkin from the nearest table and held it at the back of Julian's head. In no time at all, the napkin was soaked through with blood, staining Miles' hand.**_

_**"Damn" Miles grumbled under his breath. He couldn't stop the bleeding; it seemed to just pour out"**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Sorry for the late story, guys! I've just been so busy with other fics! SORRY!**_

_**This isn't the head injury one like I said, but it was just a super quick story I wrote to fill in the gap between my next update!**_

_**Oh and stupid FF . net didn't let me copy and paste this like I normally do, so I had to upload it so I hope it shows up alright! -.-**_

_***I am crying over the fact I don't own Star Trek. Can you imagine how rich I'd be!***_

_**XXX**_

Julian had never seen anyone so beautiful. He literally stopped breathing when he caught sight of her. Her eyes were a vibrant blue. Her hair was a mass of different shades of auburn. Her skin was like porcelain. She was just _perfect. _

He was staring at her, trying not to make it obvious. She was alone, working on a PADD and sipping some kind of beverage. She looked Human, but there were many aliens who looked like his species, he couldn't be sure without scanning her.

He laughed despite himself. He couldn't just approach her and begin a scan! He would need to _ask _her what species she was.

Looking away for a moment, he began a small conversation in his head on what he was going to talk about with her. He couldn't remember the last time his charm didn't work. Well. Apart from Dax, but that was for the best. He valued their friendship and would do anything to keep it healthy.

Turning back to where the woman was, he saw her frowning at the PADD. _Perfect._

Picking up his drink, he rose from his table and approached her.

"Hi" He said as he stood next to her.

She visibly startled, her eyes widening as she saw him. "Hello"

"I'm Julian" He smiled his best smile "May I?" he asked, gesturing to the vacant chair opposite her.

"Uh, of course" She seemed to still be slightly shocked with his sudden appearance.

"I don't think I've ever seen you here before" Julian stated as he lowered himself onto the chair.

"I've been on this station for three years, Doctor. I've just never been in this establishment before today" She said flatly as she once again focussed on her PADD.

Julian was thrown back by her statement, but also her tone of voice. How did she know he was a Doctor? Pushing the though away, he continued with the conversation "Oh. Do you have family here Miss…"

Sighing, she placed her PADD on the table "I'm in Starfleet, Sir. I'm an Ensign and would like to be addressed as such"

_Right. She obviously doesn't want to be bothered. _"I'm sorry, Ensign. Would you prefer if I left you alone?"

Her eyes closed and she pinched the bridge of her nose "It's me who should apologize. You're a senior officer and I should respect you. It's just this problem I'm having and I can't seem to solve it"

"I see. Can I have a look? I might be of some help" He offered.

Her eyes opened and looked at him with a confused look "You're a Doctor, Sir. My problem in an Engineering matter, I'm not sure you will know what you're doing"

Julian smiled at her; he loved to brag "Well. Actually I did an Engineering extension course at the Academy. And…" he gestured her to come close "I'm sure that you've heard about my _little secret_"

She frowned at him "What… _little secret?_" She leant back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest, intrigued.

"C'mon! Everyone knows my little secret! If you've been on this station for as long as you say, you would have heard. Rumours spread around this station like wildfire!"

Her cheeks went red at his statement, and she lowered her gaze to the table top, embarrassed "Well. I, er, like to keep to myself. I don't enjoy socialising with others. So I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about"

Julian was shocked at her admittance. How can someone so _beautiful _not enjoy talking to others? Surely people approach her all the time. "Oh. Well, you're socialising with me just fine" He knew he lied to her, she was very brash. But she looked so sad; he wanted to make her feel better.

She lifted an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously "Don't lie. I'm awful at talking to others. Now. What's this secret?"

Julian leant close to her, lowering his voice "At the age of six. I was… _genetically enhanced" _It was such a relief for him to freely talk about the topic.

Her face paled and her breath hitched "Wha- What?"

"I was not always the smart and brilliant Doctor you know me as" He tried to lighten the obvious dull atmosphere.

She looked at him with a hint of anger in her eyes "Genetically enhanced?"

"Yes" He knew it was big news, and something you didn't hear every day, but the pure shock on her face startled him.

Her gaze lowered to the PADD on the table, it looked like she was processing what she was just told. And all of a sudden, she smiled and looked at him. Her hand moved to cover his. "Tell me more"

XXX

"…and that's it" Julian finished the long explanation about how Jules transformed into Julian. They had ordered drink after drink after drink and now he was feeling a bit _tipsy. _He didn't mean to delve too deep into his life, but he couldn't stop himself, it was as if the truth kept pouring out of his mouth.

She smiled at him, and shook her head in amazement "That's so interesting, and utterly amazing. I mean how they can alter a few genes here and there and transform a person into something so different. Were there any side effects?" She asked as she ordered another round of drinks.

"Well, I remember getting sick a lot when I was ten. It might have nothing to do with the enhancements, but I'm not too sure. I was at the hospital for a week, but I don't remember a lot of it" He leant back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, he already had four alcoholic drinks, but this woman didn't have any. _She had a shift in a few hours._

"Interesting, very interesting, this is all so fascinating, Doctor. Would you mind helping me with something?" She leant forward and stared him in the eyes. She knew she was what most people considered beautiful, and it never came in useful. _Until now._

The waiter placed the new drink onto the table and collected the empty glasses. Julian thanked him and picked up the new glass. "What can I help you with?"

She smiled and started to raise herself from her chair "Come and see for yourself, Doctor"

Julian stared open mouthed at her; she was nearly as tall as him. Seeing the suggestive smile on her face, he downed his last drink and stood up. "I, er…don't know your name"

She laughed at that. She completely forgot she didn't tell him her name "Ensign Francis Hartleberry"

"That's a beautiful name, Francis. It's also a Human name" He didn't know where that came from, his mind was foggy.

She was slightly taken back by that statement "Er, yes. Yes it is. I am Human. Don't I look it?"

He giggled and began to walk around to stand beside her "There are countless aliens that look like us. I just wasn't too sure. Shall we go to your quarters?"

"No. Let's go to yours" Francis turned round and began walking out of the establishment. Julian followed her like an eager puppy.

XXX

"Here it is. My quarters" Julian announced as he strolled in.

"It's very nice. Tidy as well. There's nothing amiss at all!" She was amazed at how spotless it was. "You're like me! I like things organised, so nothing goes missing or wrong"

Julian smiled and walked to the replicator "Do you want anything?"

Francis slumped down onto the sofa. While Julian was drinking alcohol, she didn't have anything to alter her state of mind as they were in the bar. "Can I just have a coffee or something, please?"

"Of course. How do you like it?" He asked.

Before she could answer, the door chime went. "Who's that?" Julian asked, honestly perplexed. He didn't arrange anything with anyone.

Francis turned towards the door "Let me just check, shall I"

She strolled to the door and opened it, revealing three Human men, who looked like they worked out. _A lot!_

"It's my father and brothers, Doctor! Come in, come in" She gestured to her quarters.

The men came walking into the room and stood in a line, with their arms clasped behind their back. Julian approached the men and stood in front of the sofa. Why would Francis' family be here? _How _could they be here?

Putting on his best smile, he offered his hand "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Hartleberry"

He just stared at him with hate and Julian slowly lowered his hand "Erm. What can I do for you? We can move to the table so we can all sit down" He began to move towards the table, when a strong hand on his chest prevented him from moving.

"You're the reason they're here, Doctor. They want to talk to you, and they prefer standing up" Francis smirked as she sat down on a nearby chair "Tell them what you told me"

Julian frowned, even if he was slightly intoxicated, he knew something was amiss "Tell them what? What's going on?" He once again tried to move, but was pushed back onto the sofa.

Francis let out a long sigh "C'mon Julian. Tell them about your little secret!"

"Wha-"Julian went to stand up again, but was roughly pushed back by her father.

"What's this secret?" Her father leant down so he was eye to eye with Julian.

"I think you should go" Julian spoke but didn't move a muscle, he was frozen from fear.

"He's genetically enhanced guys. Like Khan Noonien Singh" Francis called out from where she was sitting. Julian just stared at her with shock.

"Khan Noonien Singh, eh?" Her father asked, still eye to eye with the Doctor "So, you're a mutant like that monster?"

Julian felt his heart hammering away in his chest, he feared it would burst from the amount of fear he felt "Sir. I'm not a mutant. I was enhanced to cure a serious birth defect"

Her father straightened up to his full height, staring down at Julian like he was rubbish "Let me tell you a story, _freak! _An ancestor of my wife was killed during the Eugenic Wars. She always vowed revenge, but sadly never succeeded as she was _killed _by an augment that escaped the institute"

_Oh no. _He had to escape or they're going to kill him. He better try and explain to them he is nothing like Khan "Sir. I assure you. I am _nothing _like Khan. I will never willingly take a life…" his words were cut off as one of Francis' brothers roughly pulled him up from the sofa by his shoulders.

"We don't want to hear your voice, Doctor" Taunted the brother as he threw Julian to the ground.

Julian hit the ground with a thud; he couldn't do anything to prevent his fall and landed with his arm behind him. He bit his lip when he felt his shoulder resist the movement, only for the muscles to be pulled painfully.

"Get up" Francis' father near enough yelled at Julian, he was _so _angry! He would take revenge for his wife's untimely death.

Julian pushed down all his fear and stood up. He would not let himself be intimidated by this man!

"Harry…" The father spoke, still staring at Julian "you hold him"

Julian's heart leapt and his stomach churned at the words. When one of Francis' brothers approached him,_ Harry he presumed, _he took a step back.

Before he knew what was happening, Harry lashed forward and grabbed hold of Julian's arms, twisting them behind his back so he was immobile from the waist up.

Francis was observing the encounter with interest. She heard about the Doctors secret _long ago. _It was difficult not to! She knew he couldn't resist a pretty face so she arranged the accidental meeting with her family. Getting him drunk was not in the original plan, however, she was looking forward to seeing Julian unable to defend himself.

She squealed with delight as her father delivered the first punch, right to Julian's midsection. She began watching with such glee as the Doctor was being attacked.

XXX

Julian was lying on the floor, breathing heavily which only jarred his ribs. Even though he wasn't moving, it caused great pain. The three men had been brutal, not stopping despite his cries of pain, not stopping until he was no longer able to move.

They had left him an hour ago; he had only regained consciousness ten minutes ago. Unable to move, he just lay there, hoping someone would notice his absence from the staff meeting.

XXX

Miles was making his way to the meeting. He had overslept and was now running late. He was never late for a meeting and he would be damned if he would start today.

Walking through the corridors and entering the meeting room, he sighed with relief, Julian wasn't there. Meaning he wasn't the last one, but looking at the chronometer, he discovered he was one minute late.

Cursing himself, he took his designated seat and slumped down. "Where's Julian?" he enquired.

Jadzia turned her gaze to the Chief, before looking at Sisko "I was thinking the same thing. But I saw him yesterday with a young woman. He's probably still in bed" She smirked.

Sisko looked at his senior officers with a serious look "Doctor Bashir knew we had a meeting, he has no excuse to be late." He realised he was being a bit harsh, but he needed to set an example. Being late was not acceptable, unless there was a damn good reason.

Slapping his combadge, he called for the doctor. Only there was no response.

"Julian, please respond"

He looked at Kira, who slapped her own badge "Kira to Doctor Bashir"

Again, no answer

"Computer, locate…" Sisko's words halted when he heard a whisper.

"Shhh" he demanded, everyone turned dead silent as they were listening.

A weak, pitiful voice was coming through Kira's combadge "_help"_

"Computer, locate Doctor Bashir"

"_Doctor Bashir is in his quarters"_

"Is he alone?"

"_Affirmative"_

"Major, Constable. Go to his quarters, see what's going on and let me know"

Kira and Odo stood up and marched out of the room, leaving Jadzia and Miles worried.

Miles spoke up "Where do you want us, Sir? He's obviously in trouble. We should all go"

"Chief. Nothing might be wrong. I don't want to cause panic by all but one of the senior officers marching through the corridors. We'll wait until we hear something. He might be drunk, we just don't know"

Sisko knew what he was saying was a weak argument, but it was true he didn't want to cause panic throughout the station.

XXX

Julian was lying curled up on his side, clutching his stomach tightly. He felt like he was going to be sick, every one of his ribs felt broken. He didn't even want to think what his stomach must look like, a mass of black and blue bruises no doubt.

Deciding he couldn't just lay here, he straightened himself. Gritting his teeth against the pain of his stomach muscles pulling, he continued to straighten until he was lying flat on his back.

The pain was excruciating, he couldn't bear the thought of crawling over to his computer to call for help. Instead, he lay still, breathing heavily and willing his heart rate down.

And then! A chirp!

He frowned, trying to figure out what the noise was. It was annoying him, he just couldn't think straight.

Deciding to ignore it, he went to investigate his stomach. Gingerly moving his hands to open his jumpsuit, he paused.

The front part of his jumpsuit was missing, his stomach was on view. He didn't remember this happening. Someone had obviously cut it open, but why?

Moving a hand to investigate any broken bones, he heard the chirp again. Louder this time, like it was coming from right beside him.

His mind soon clicked! His combadge! It was obviously still nearby.

Lowering his hands and turning his head to the source of the sound, he saw his badge. It was among the remains of his uniform.

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself for the pain that was to come, he leant toward the badge, trying to grasp a hold of it.

It took him four attempts to grab it, but he soon tapped it and said the first thing that came to mind "Help"

The static ceased and he collapsed back onto the floor, he was just so tired. His attackers ignored his face and head, just focussed their punches and kicks on his stomach, but he was still so tired.

Sure that help was on the way; Julian allowed his eyes to drift shut.

XXX

Kira and Odo were marching through the corridor, they were trying to avoid any attention but at the same time get to the doctors quarters as soon as possible.

"What do you think is happening, Odo?" Kira asked as they turned a corner, it wouldn't take long to get to Julian's quarters.

"Going on, Major?" Odo asked.

"With Julian! Sisko said he might be drunk, but why would he ask for help?" Kira enquired.

Odo scoffed "Lieutenant Dax said she saw him with a woman last night. She probably stayed round Doctor Bashir's quarters and had a few more drinks."

"But why would he ask for help?" Kira asked, her gut was telling her something was utterly wrong.

Odo shrugged his shoulders "You know how Doctor Bashir is when he's drunk. He probably fell off the couch and asked for help"

Kira shook her head "I think there's something more, Odo. The computer said he's the only one in his quarters. Why would he still be there, but his companion have left?" They turned to last corner to Julian's quarters.

XXX

He heard a noise, coming from outside. For a dreadful long moment, he feared it was Francis' family coming back. He held his breath, trying not to make a sound.

Until he heard the unmistakable sound of the Major.

XXX

"Computer, open the door" Kira demanded.

There was no response, not even a chirp.

"Computer, open the door" Odo tried. When that didn't work, he tried his security code. But still, nothing happened.

Kira let out a long frustrated sigh "We need to use the manual override"

Odo immediately moved over to pull the lever down, opening the doors with the distinct _hiss._

"Doctor Bashir?" Odo called out.

A cough caught their attention, coming from an adjoining room. Then a weak voice called out "In here"

Kira glanced at Odo, and marched into the room.

She ran straight for the doctor's body, dropping to her knees and grabbing hold of his face in her hands "Julian! What happened?" her voice revealed the utter shock she felt as she saw the condition he was in.

His face was unmarked, if a bit pale. It was his chest and stomach which worried her. It was covered in bruises and blood. When she gently placed a hand on his abdomen, he cried out.

Pulling her hand back quickly, he tried to calm him "Shhh. Help is on the way, Julian. What happened?"

Julian panted to control the pain "A few people" his eyes squeezed shut, talking hurt his chest "didn't like my enhancements"

Kira felt her anger rise up, she very nearly saw red! How dare someone attack someone so brutally just because of something done to them as a child. Julian saves life! No one should be punished for it!

Odo called for medical assistance as soon as he saw Julian's condition. He had seen people attacked like this, wounds inflicted the same way. But he just didn't understand why someone would do that to the doctor! He was a healer!

He could see by Julian's face that talking hurt. He winced through his entire sentence to Kira. Odo needed to know what happened, but it was obvious Julian wasn't in a position to give a report.

Signalling his deputies to come to Julian's quarters, he stood back and watched with interest as Kira shushed Julian like a child.

XXX

"He'll be alright. He had a few cracked ribs and severe bruising but luckily nothing was broken. He also needed a skin graph on his chest" Nurse Jabara announced as she walked out of surgery.

All of the senior officers were in the waiting area, patiently waiting for news on Julian. It was Miles who was the first to notice Jabara's entrance. The others soon realised she strolled into the room.

"Why a skin graph?" Jadzia asked as she rose herself up from her chair.

Jabara sighed sadly "His attacker used a scalpel to write "_Genetic Freak" _on his chest. That's where the blood had come from. Luckily it wasn't deep enough to scar, but it did require new skin"

"Can we see him?" Sisko asked.

Jabara shook her head "He's still unconscious from the surgery, but he'll be up in a few hours. Why don't you go and get a drink, I'll inform you when he awakens"

Sisko nodded his head, already beginning to walk towards the exit. He stopped when he heard Miles' voice "So he'll be alright, then?"

Jabara smiled and nodded "Yes. He'll make a full recovery"

Miles sighed and closed his eyes. _What a relief! _

XXX

Odo and his deputies managed to find the attackers and put them in the brig to wait for Captain Sisko.

No one expected they would ever be allowed onto a Starfleet vessel again. Attacking a Starfleet officer is a grave offence, it would have been a lot worse if Julian had _died_. But. His injuries were not severe enough to cause death, just extreme pain.

These people knew where to hit Julian to cause as much suffering as possible, almost like they had practice on others.

What no one but the Hartleberry's knew was, that there was another person who joined in the fight.

Another person who was still on the station…

END

**XXX**

_**I hope you liked it! And once again if it shows up weird, blame FF . net. I am completely not used to uploading a file :(**_

_**No preview this time, because it will be the head injury fic :P**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**HI!**_

_**It's me again! *woop***_

_**Now, this story is just over 2.4k, so it's not that long. It took so long to post this one because I was doing other fics, and looking for a job, and driving lessons, and booking driving tests. It's been a busy few weeks!**_

_**Anyway. Sorry for my rambling. Here's the head injury fic. Enjoy!**_

_**XXX**_

Miles and Julian were in the Replimat, just finishing their drinks and talking about everyday things.

"Got time for another drink, Chief?" Julian asked cheerfully, hoping he and Miles would spend more time together. If the Chief were to leave, Julian would be bored.

Miles debated it for a moment, thinking if he needed to do any maintenance or repairs. After going through his assignments in his head, he discovered he was free for the rest of the day "Sure. I'm off the rest of the day so I'll have a pint"

"Great!" Julian beamed at the Chief. When Miles didn't budge out of his seat, Julian's face fell in an annoyed scowl.

"I'm getting it then" he mumbled to himself as he rose out of the chair and walked over to the nearest replicator.

Miles scoffed at Julian's annoyance. He always won _chicken. _All he had to do was sit still and Julian always got the drinks. It was a nice talent that he would always love.

When Julian walked to fetch the drinks, Miles leant back and relaxed. He hadn't had a whole afternoon off for ages! He was relieved but at the same time he had a strong feeling he'd get a call to fix something or other.

He caught site of a fellow Engineer and smiled at her. To his surprise the Engineer, an Ensign Harlson, walked up to him and sat down in the chair Julian just vacated.

"Hi, Chief" She said without a smile. Something was obviously on her mind.

"What is it, Ensign?" Miles asked with concern.

She looked down for a moment, trying to find the words for her request "I know it's a bit short notice, Sir. But I was wondering if you could find someone to cover me for this afternoon" She looked up at him with a pleading look in her eyes.

Miles involuntarily sighed "It _is _short notice, Jade, why don't you want to work today? Is something wrong?"

Jade shook her head "Not _wrong! _It's just that my sister had her baby, two weeks early, and she wants to contact me at 1600 hours."

Miles nodded his head in understanding, Jade was so excited for the baby and he knew she felt awful for requesting this at such short notice "I can't give you the _whole _shift off, but I'll let you have an hour to talk to your sister, is that alright?"

Jade's face lit up, her smile was huge! "Oh, thank you so much! I won't forget this!" She spoke as she got up from her seat and began walking off to start her shift.

Miles smirked at her happiness, he liked Jade, and she always made people smile. He couldn't even think of a time when she _didn't _make other people smile.

He turned round to see where Julian was, and saw him waiting patiently in line. Julian caught Miles staring at him and blew air out his mouth, in obvious annoyance.

Miles laughed at Julian's expression, before he turned round and looked around the Replimat, bored.

XXX

Julian was getting fed up, now. All he wanted was two drinks and the Bolian in front of him decided they wanted nearly _everything _in the databanks.

He was about to give up, when the Bolian left. He thanked the Gods and moved to make his order; he hadn't made it far when he noticed a humming. _That isn't normal. _

He sighed. _Typical! _The Bolian had over used the replicator, now it's broken. Just when he was about to turn away to go to another replicator, the humming stopped and his order materialised.

"What?" Julian mumbled to himself, what was going on with this replicator?

Shaking his head in annoyance, he walked back to pick up the drink and order Miles' drink.

Now the replicator was _screeching. _Had Julian been anything but annoyed and fed up, he would have sensed something was about to happen.

It exploded, a bolt of raw energy hit him in the chest and he was thrown right to the other side of the establishment.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion for Julian, he was conscious through it all, the _pain! _It was excruciating and he wouldn't be surprised if his chest was all burnt.

It was when he felt his back collide with the floor, that he realised what was going to happen. He couldn't prevent his head from impacting the hard metal floor before he lost consciousness.

XXX

Miles was just about to call Julian and tell him not to bother, when he saw the Bolian leave and Julian rush up and place his order.

_Thank God! _He was so thirsty and couldn't wait to have sip of ice cold beer. His mouth started watering at the thought. _Hurry Up!_

He glanced away for _one _second when he heard a bang. He turned round in time to see Julian fly through the air to the other side of the Replimat. Miles was up from his seat quicker than lightening and ran to his best friend's side.

Running up, he could see Julian's jumpsuit was all burned at the front, smoke still emitting from it. Kneeling down to take a better look, he saw the material had melted onto Julian's skin, making his chest a mixture of tan, red, black, grey and teal.

Miles leant down and took his pulse, relieved at the steady thumping beneath his fingers. Sighing his relief, he called for medical assistance. He waited by his friend's side, calling his name softly, when he saw it.

Blood. Quite a lot of it, was pooling beneath Julian's head. Miles looked at the doctor's face and noticed how clammy he was.

He acted on instinct and grabbed a napkin from the nearest table and held it at the back of Julian's head. In no time at all, the napkin was soaked through with blood, staining Miles' hand.

"Damn" Miles grumbled under his breath. He couldn't stop the bleeding; it seemed to just pour out of his head.

Three medics materialised a short distance from the two officers and pushed through the crowd that had gathered around Julian.

"Stand aside!"

The crowd dispersed, leaving Julian, Miles and the three medics.

"What happened?" It was Nurse Prim who had spoken, immediately kneeling down and checking the fallen Doctor's pulse.

"The replicator exploded and he was thrown across the room" Miles said as he was moving out the way for the other medics, who were preparing the anti-gravity stretcher.

Prim nodded and scanned Julian's torso "Third degree burns on the chest and neck…" She listed as she moved to his head. She took one look at the readouts and her eyes went wide. "We need to get him to the Infirmary right away!"

The medics needed no more instructions, they transferred Julian's body onto the stretcher and made their way to the Infirmary, leaving Prim and Miles following close behind.

"What's wrong?!" Miles asked worriedly, he was struggling to keep up with Prim.

"He's sustained a serious head injury, Sir. He needs immediate surgery" Prim was talking so calmly, Miles couldn't believe it!

"Why couldn't you beam him straight to the Infirmary, if it's that serious?"

"He hit his head pretty hard, Sir. He's got a skull fracture and swelling of the brain. I didn't want to risk transporting him, in case of making things worse" They had made it to the Infirmary, Julian was already on the biobed in the surgery area, wired up to the display readouts above his head.

"I need to prepare for surgery. Doctor Bashir has been teaching me for emergency surgery, I know what I'm doing. I need you out of the room, Chief. Only experienced medics are to be in here" She was talking as she was getting changed in the red scrubs.

"Of course. I'll be in the waiting area" Miles spoke quietly, feeling very scared that his friend wouldn't make it. He could see blood still pooling beneath Julian's head, his skin looked incredibly pale.

Miles looked at his hand, seeing it completely red. His stomach churned with his nerves and he turned round and went to clean up, leaving Julian with his nurses.

XXX

Prim was _scared. _Although she had been taught for emergency surgery, Julian had always been there in case of a mistake. She _never _made a mistake, but it was a security to have someone behind her.

Now she was preparing for a serious operation on the CMO. She was the most experienced nurse in the room, she had to set an example and panicking would only worsen matters.

"He's prepped" Another nurse called out from the operation room, startling Prim.

"Let me just scrub my hands" Prim answered back, her voice revealing none of her true feelings.

_Calm down. You're capable of doing this! Just relax._

Blowing air out of her mouth, she finished scrubbing, composed herself and walked out of the room.

XXX

Miles felt like he should be in the Infirmary for his best friend. But he _knew _he was needed most here, at the scene of the incident.

He and his engineers were scanning the replicator, to see if anything was amiss, while Odo was questioning the Bolian.

"Damn" O'Brien swore softly. His scans revealed that it was just a simple overload, probably due to the Bolian ordering so much.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, he would be _damned _if Julian were to die by such a stupid thing. A replicator overload! He was meant to stop things like that! It was his fault!

_No!_

He couldn't let himself think that! He shouldn't feel guilty. He couldn't have known that it would explode, it's not his fault!

He didn't have anything to do. He scanned the replicator, now what? He should go and visit Julian, but he didn't want to be a bother.

Dismissing his engineers, he stood, staring at the broken, black replicator with contempt.

XXX

_Take deep breaths! Deep. Nice and deep. Keep going. Calm down. Everything's alright. Deep breaths…_

Prim thought to herself constantly throughout the operation. She couldn't afford to be scared during the crisis. She actually managed to will her nerves down, until she saw Julian lying on the biobed.

_Her stomach tightened at the sight, but she couldn't show her nerves. It would only worry the other nurses._

_Walking up to him, she immediately took the chair at the top of the biobed. She sat down and investigated the wound._

_Now it had been cleaned, and the hair shaven off, she could see just how deep it was. Bone was visible through the broken skin._

_Her eyes closed for a short moment, thinking how much she'd hate herself if she panicked._

_Opening her eyes, she went straight to work, asking for the necessary tools to begin the surgery._

_Picking up a laser scalpel, she started cutting the skin around the wounded area. Using the knowledge Julian taught her, she moved to pick up a more powerful tool, to cut through the skull_

It was nearly over. She just had to place a fist sized metal plate where the skull was opened then it'll have been a successful operation.

_Just a little longer. Don't rush it. If something was to go wrong, it would have already._

Attaching the plate, she leant back and sighed. It was a success!

Prim found herself smiling at the sound of the pulse on the computer screen, he was alive. And judging by the strength of the pulse, everything would be alright.

She was torn out of her thoughts when a nurse approached her "Everything seems to be in order. The cut to the brain and the bleeding has ceased. I think he'll be unconscious for a few days"

Prim thanked her and stood up, placing a caring hand on Julian's shoulder. She knew he would be proud of her, if he remembered.

She stopped breathing at the thought. Grabbing the closest tricorder, she ran her own scan.

She sighed in relief. It was common that someone who received a blow to the head suffered amnesia, but according to the readouts, Julian's memory wouldn't be too seriously affected.

Prim smiled at the scan results and once again at Julian's unconscious figure.

Everything would be fine.

She just needed to treat the burns then he'll be as good as new

XXX

**5 Days Later**

The Infirmary was crowded with all the senior officers, waiting for their friend and CMO to wake up from his five day coma.

Prim had contacted Sisko, stating she expected Julian to awaken within half an hour. She was surprised to see Sisko, Dax, Kira, O'Brien and Odo all walk in five minutes later.

They had been there for twenty five minutes, now. Prim smiled, she wished Julian could have seen how much everyone had been worried during the last five days.

Her tricorder beeped, causing her to jump with surprise. _Julian is waking up._

The beeping startled the officers, their eyes turned to Julian's figure.

Prim moved to pick up a hypospray; it would help Julian regain consciousness.

"Come on, Julian. Can you open your eyes for me?" Prim urged. She could see his eyes fluttering, his face frowning as he struggled back into reality.

And at last, his eyes opened. His hazel eyes searching the room he found himself in, confused to where he was. "Where am I?" he mumbled

Miles walked forward and patted his friend on the shoulder "You're in the Infirmary, Julian. Do you remember what happened?"

Julian stared at Miles with a bewildered look, his face burrowed in a frown as he saw Miles face "What? Wh-who are you?"

Dax gasped and Miles lifted his head to look at Prim. To his amazement, he saw Prim smile sympathetically "It's completely normal, Chief. He's just awakened after a coma, _after _he received a bad head injury. My scans show the amnesia is not permanent. He should regain his memories in a couple of days. Until then I would like to keep him here for observation, but everyone is free to visit him. It may speed up his recovery" She smiled at Julian and left the room.

Prim felt so relieved to see Julian awake. His hazel eyes were such a sight! She felt like she hadn't seen them for so long.

Moving into the office, she slumped down in the chair. Prim closed her eyes, Julian would be fine.

Everything would be fine. And it was thanks to her

END

_**Did ya like it? I sure hope you did :P**_

_**I changed it so many times, but this one seemed to best so I kept it. **_

_**The next fic is one I wrote just today. The idea suddenly came to me and I had to write it down and I couldn't stop now it's finished! O.o**_

"_**The alien suddenly walked towards Julian, his hand slowly reaching behind him.**_

_**Oh no.**_

_**Before Julian had a chance to react, the alien brought out a weapon, much like an old style earth gun, and fired.**_

_**The bang echoed in his ears as he felt a burning stab in stomach. He felt himself fall backwards and was barely conscious when the alien's face suddenly loomed over him. Staring at him with interest.**_

_**Julian moved a weak hand to try and investigate the wounded area and felt his heart skip a beat…"**_


	12. Chapter 12

**HI!**

**This is a short story; it's about 2.6k words so I hope you enjoy it!**

**Oh, and I've got a lot of busy stuff happening, work, interviews, driving lessons/tests etc. So I may not be able to post as often, but I am NOT stopping the story!**

**Mijra's new story is getting SO good! If you enjoy my stories, go read hers, you WON'T be disappointed! *SHADOWRUNNER* is just simply amazing and suspenseful and cool…**

**XXX**

"Have you fixed the communications yet, Chief?" Julian asked as he was standing outside. He had no idea what he should do.

Their shuttle had _broken down. _That was the only way he could describe what happened. They had been flying towards the wormhole to get back to DS9, when the engine began to splutter.

The next thing either of them knew was that they were hurtling towards a nearby planet.

Luckily, the Chief was able to save them from a rather nasty crash by rerouting all unnecessary power to the thrusters. It was still a pretty rough landing, but no one had sustained any injuries.

Miles tried to get the engines working, but to no avail. Nothing he tried had worked; he grew more and more agitated with each passing minute until Julian ordered him to take a break.

Now, ten minutes later, Miles was back to work in the shuttle. He soon realised that fixing the engines was useless, so decided to focus on communication. At least then they'd be able to contact someone for help.

He groaned when he heard Julian call out, it had only been about two minutes since the _last _time Julian asked if he was done. Surly Julian knew he couldn't have gotten them up so quickly?

Sighing, he replied back "Not yet, Julian. Why don't you go search for food and water or something?"

Julian began pacing back and forth. He was _bored. _He couldn't be any help with the shuttle, if he was with _anyone _but the Chief, he'd help out. But _how _could he help the Chief of Operations, he knew everything. He would just get in the way.

Ceasing his movements, he decided to follow Miles' suggestion. Anything was better than standing around for god knows how long!

"Alright. I've got my combadge with me and I won't go too far" Julian called out as he began walking through the greenery towards a forest.

"Don't forget to take a container if you find any water!" Miles yelled out, knowing full well that Julian hadn't taken the water containers.

Julian stopped and dropped his head. How could he have forgotten the containers? Now the Chief is probably smirking at his stupidity. _Fancy saying you'll go look for water without taking anything to put the water in!_

Turning back around, he marched up to the shuttle entrance and snatched the containers out of the cargo box, careful not to make eye contact with Miles.

"See you in a bit" Julian mumbled as he left the shuttle and began his walk towards the forest. _Surely there'll be some fruit and water somewhere._

XXX

Julian had been wondering around for half an hour and still had no success in finding a source of food or water. He constantly contacted Miles, one reason was to ask if he had finished fixing the communications, and the other was just to let him know he wasn't stuck in mud or something.

Julian smirked as he once again tapped his combadge. He was bored, fed up and wanted a laugh "Bashir to O'Brien"

"_Damn it Julian. Unless you found water or food or a spare shuttle, don't talk to me!" _Miles annoyed voice came through his badge, before it cut off.

He smiled and shook his head; the Chief had finally grown annoyed and taken his combadge offline. _Pretty stupid, Miles. What if I _did _find something? Now you'll never know!_

Julian sat down on a nearby rock and took off his boots. Starfleet boots were very good for walking around ships and stations, but not so comfortable for trenching around forests.

His feet were so stiff; he had to constantly wriggle his toes to get full movement and circulation again. _I should just go back._ His engineered hearing couldn't detect any running water. But then they suddenly detected…_something._

Frowning, he put his boots back on and slowly stood up. _What was that noise? _It sounded like rustling? Footsteps?

He turned around to face the direction of the sound. _Should I go? _He stood still for a moment, trying to decide whether or not it was a good idea to go strolling towards a strange noise, on a strange planet, by _himself._

He shook his head, _stupid! _He would just endanger himself if he followed the sound, it could be a dangerous animal. He had no idea what things inhabited this planet and he had no desire in encountering a dangerous lion-type thing.

Turning back the way he came, he walked back towards Miles and the shuttle.

He hadn't made it far when he suddenly heard the noise again, a lot closer than before.

He froze on the spot. _Was he being followed? _

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he turned around to try and find the source of the sound.

His eyes fell upon a man, an alien that Julian had never seen before. His species obviously shared some characteristics with a Bajoran. They almost looked exactly the same, except the nose ridges continued travelling up onto the forehead. The alien just stood there and stared at Julian, making him very uncomfortable.

"Hello" Julian tried; maybe the alien understood the greeting.

In response, the alien just tilted his head to the side, much like a bird. He showed no understanding of Julian's words.

_Well, if he didn't understand "hello", maybe he'd understand his name?_

Julian smiled, and pointed to himself "Julian"

Once again, the alien just stared at him.

Sighing, Julian didn't have a clue what to do. If he turned round, the alien might attack. It might follow him back to the shuttle. He could be from a pre-warp civilisation. Julian couldn't break the prime directive! He'd have to do something to take the alien off his trail.

He slowly walked towards the man, who jumped back as if he expected him to attack. _Great. _Julian thought. _Maybe I can scare him away like a pest._

He took three big steps towards the man and waved his arms in an attempt to make him seem big and intimidating.

It didn't work.

The alien suddenly walked towards Julian, his hand slowly reaching behind him.

_Oh no._

Before Julian had a chance to react, the alien brought out a weapon, much like an old style earth gun, and fired.

The bang echoed in his ears as he felt a burning stab in stomach. He felt himself fall backwards and was barely conscious when the alien's face suddenly loomed over him. Staring at him with interest.

Julian moved a hand to try and investigate the wounded area and felt his heart skip a beat.

The wound was small_, _but deep and it was rapidly congealing blood. He applied pressure to his stomach, and looked up and saw the alien walk away.

Leaving him alone.

Leaving him to bleed to death.

With no way of communicating with the Chief.

XXX

Miles was still working on the communications, when he heard the gun fire. He jumped at the sound and picked up his combadge, tapping it.

"O'Brien to Bashir"

XXX

"_O'Brien to Bashir"_

Julian was fighting hard to remain conscious, the voice sounded so distant. Was it even real? He couldn't be sure.

"_Julian, please respond"_

Even if it wasn't real, it wouldn't hurt to try and answer back.

Bringing his hand up took immense effort for Julian. His abdomen pulled at the strain and he felt as he was going to be sick.

It took him an eternity to tap his badge and croak out a call for help

XXX

"Julian, please respond" Miles was worried; he heard something that sounded much like a gun fire, now his friend isn't responding. This cannot be good.

He broke into a run and followed the same path his friend did. He took a few steps when a weak, rasping voice came through his badge.

"_Miles. I'm…hurt. Help"_

Miles never stopped running "Julian! Where are you?!"

His stomach churned when he didn't get a response. _No! He's gotta be alright. He's Julian! He can't be dead._

He was about to shout for Julian from the top of his lungs, but decided not to. Whoever shot the weapon may still be around.

XXX

He was sweating, exhausted, hungry and above all, scared. He was running around an alien forest with no way to find his friend. _Julian just had to be here somewhere!_

If he brought his tricorder with him, he may have been able to search for Human life signs. Miles cursed himself for his carelessness. Maybe he should go back to the shuttle and lock on to him?

_Stupid! Why'd you think you're stuck here in the first place?! The shuttles as good as dead!_

He shook his head. He wasn't thinking clearly, the fear and dehydration was getting to him. Miles stood still and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath to calm himself; he had to think logically where Julian was.

_Footprints!_

Miles couldn't believe he didn't even think about the footprints! It was so obvious! In his panic, he just ran forwards, not thinking about a trail.

Looking down, he saw no sign of footprints. _Maybe if I go back the way I came…_

Turning around, he began jogging back towards the shuttle.

XXX

_Damn it! Damn it all! _

Miles could no longer go on. He felt like he had been running for _hours! _Nothing had revealed where his friend was. He slumped to the ground in defeat. _Julian probably would already have found me by now!_

He felt so guilty! _Julian's probably dead; I couldn't get to him, I…_

His thoughts were interrupted by a moan.

He lifted his head up "Julian?!"

He heard the moan again, this time he could hear where it was coming from.

Miles was up and running towards the moan before he was even aware.

XXX

Julian was trying his best to keep the blood from freely leaving his body.

He wasn't succeeding.

His hands were slick with his own blood; he felt his jumpsuit become sticky and wet as it clung to his torso. He knew he wouldn't last long without help.

He was just about to give up, when he heard panting. It sounded as if someone had run a thousand miles.

He felt so weak, his body felt so heavy. Julian just couldn't concentrate properly. He closed his eyes, he just wanted to sleep.

_Someone is nearby…_

His brain finally kicked into gear. He tried to shout out, but no words emitted from his mouth.

Instead, he decided to moan.

"Julian?!"

_Miles!_

_Oh! It is Miles! Oh thank God!_

He moaned again.

XXX

Miles ran the short distance to the source of the sound, and saw his friend lying on the ground.

"Julian!"

Julian gave no response whatsoever, which made Miles panic even more!

"Julian!"

He was sprinting to his best friend and dropped to his knees beside him.

Julian was unconscious. The moaning alone was too much for him and he couldn't overpower his eyes closing.

"Julian?" Miles voice cracked as he took in his friend's condition.

He was pale as a ghost, his breath came in pants.

"Julian?" Miles reached down to gently stroke his friend's forehead, only to pull it back as the coldness startled him. "Julian. Answer me"

Looking down, he first noticed the blood. He blanched at the sight.

Julian's blood stained his jumpsuit and was rapidly pouring out onto the ground beneath him. Staining the fallen leaves a crimson red.

"Damn it!" Miles applied pressure to the wound, his hands already becoming slick with blood.

He had dealt with similar wounds before, but he was still nevertheless shaken at Julian's gaunt face. He looked closer to death than he was to life.

_No!_

Shaking his head to push the thoughts away, he once again put pressure on his friend's stomach. "Julian. Open your eyes!"

He wasn't expecting an answer, but he still would have felt a _lot _better if Julian had at least moaned again.

"C'mon Julian! I can't just leave you here!" He felt his stomach tighten. _What should I do? _Should he wait with his friend until help suddenly, against all odds, came. Or should he carry Julian back to the shuttle and begin working on communications?

One look at his friend told him. The shuttle had medical equipment. He could stop the bleeding with the medkit!

Placing his arms underneath Julian's shoulders and knees, he hoisted his injured friend up off the blood soaked floor and carried him to the shuttle.

XXX

Miles felt his muscles resist the weight-that-was-Julian in his arms. He felt as if he were to collapse himself from pure exhaustion.

He did consider resting for _one _second, until he saw the shuttle!

"Thank you God" Miles muttered as he practically ran to the shuttle, while all the time keeping Julian supported in his arms.

As soon as they reached the crash site, Miles gently placed his friend on the grass and made his way to get the necessary equipment. He picked up a tricorder and the medkit and knelt down by Julian.

The scans revealed a bullet wound, roughly five millimetres in diameter. For a long moment, Miles thought he would have to operate to get the bullet out, however; another scan showed the bullet went clean through without damaging major organs.

It was good but also bad. It meant he didn't have to operate, but it also meant that Julian was losing a _lot _of blood.

Grabbing the laser scalpel, he cut through the remains of Julian's jumpsuit and parted it to get a better look at the wound. It didn't do a lot of good, blood was _everywhere _on Julian's stomach, and he couldn't even see where the wound was.

Miles picked up a bunch of bandages and started to clean Julian's stomach until he found the wound.

Discarding the blooded bandages, he grabbed a pressure bandage and applied it to the wound. That should stop the bleeding from the front for a while. Now he had to do the same for the exit wound.

XXX

Miles was still trying to fix communications, while all the time glancing at the tricorder that showed his friend's heart beat and respiratory. _No change. _

He was nearly there; he just had to do one more thing then… _hey-presto! _

He laughed in triumph when the system came back online! Now he could call for help!

Calling out to all frequencies, Miles sent out a Mayday and moved to check on his friend.

Julian looked a tiny bit better. Blood was no longer seeping out the wound, but Miles could see a small patch on blood on the fresh pressure bandage.

He sighed in worry and checked Julian's temperature. It was slightly warmer, but it was still unusually low.

"Julian. Can you hear me?"

He wasn't really expecting a response, and when he heard the weak voice reply, he jumped out of his skin.

"Julian!"

"Miles" He sounded so weak, but at least he was awake

"What happened?" Miles asked in genuine worry, someone had obviously attacked his friend and we needed to know who did it!

"I don't… really know. Alien…shot me" Talking was becoming a struggle and he had to concentrate to fight the darkness.

"Alien? Never mind. Just rest, help will be here soon. Just don't die on me, ya hear?" Miles joked as he patted his friend on the shoulder.

Julian's lips moved up into a small smile, he looked at the Chief "I'll…try" his eyes closed and he fell into unconsciousness.

"That's it. Just rest, now. Help is coming" Miles whispered as he moved to lie next to his friend. He was exhausted! They crashed at least eighteen hours ago, and he was beginning to feel the effects of sleep deprivation.

In no time at all, the Chief fell into a deep sleep and never felt the transporter beam from the Defiant energize them back on board.

END

**So! There we have it. **

**I discovered that nearly all my stories end in the Infirmary, so I thought I'd just end it when they're beamed back on board. But here's a little summary of what happened afterwards:**

***Julian was beamed straight to the Infirmary and treated for the wound and went back to work three days later***

**BEWARE! KOBLIADS ARE APPROACHING**

"**Retrieving the necessary device from his pocket, he placed it on the Human's forehead and covered his mouth with his hand. He looked at the four other Kobliad and waited for their nods, he turned the device on.**

**Julian's eyes flew open as an intense pain shot him in his forehead, he tried to raise his arm to touch his aching head, but couldn't. He tried to lift his legs, but they were immobile as well. Panicking, he began struggling against the hold on him, but to no avail. If he couldn't move, he'd call for help, but before he could breathe forth one word, he noticed the pressure on his mouth, someone was covering it.**

**Despite his genetic enhancements, he couldn't see very well in the dark. He couldn't see the people that were holding him down his own mattress…"**


	13. Chapter 13

_**Hi all!**_

_**How is everyone this fine evening? I hope you've all been reading mine and AlwaysAbby's story!**_

_**This is the Kobliad fic. I have never re written a story so many times! So I hope it's okay.**_

_***I don't know how I should tell you this but…. I don't own Star Trek!* **_

**XXX**

"Hurry up and get the doors open, before someone sees us!" Dretafa hissed to his comrades. They planned everything to the last letter and he would be damned if things went wrong now.

The doors parted for them and they immediately ran in, keeping mind to remain quiet as to not awake the Human.

Kobliad's had remarkably good eye sight, especially in the dark. They could see exactly where they were going without having to raise the lights and disrupt the Human from his slumber.

The five of them walked into the bedroom, their reason for being here was sound asleep on the bed, no sign that he was aware of their presence.

"Hold him"

The four Kobliad stalked up to the sleeping doctor and each took a limb, they rolled the doctor onto his back and spread his arms and legs wide so he couldn't move.

Dretafa could see the doctor was disturbed; it was obvious he was going to awaken any minute; he had to do this now.

Retrieving the necessary device from his pocket, he placed it on the Human's forehead and covered his mouth with his hand. He looked at the four other Kobliad and waited for their nods, he turned the device on.

Julian's eyes flew open as an intense pain shot him in his forehead, he tried to raise his arm to touch his aching head, but couldn't. He tried to lift his legs, but they were immobile as well. Panicking, he began struggling against the hold on him, but to no avail.

If he couldn't move, he'd call for help, but before he could breathe forth one word, he noticed the pressure on his mouth, someone was covering it. Despite his genetic enhancements, he couldn't see very well in the dark. He couldn't see the people that were holding him down his own mattress.

Dretafa could see his comrades were struggling to hold the Human down, he knew the doctor was stronger than most humans, which is why he hired the four strongest Kobliad he knew.

The device would take affect shortly, and the Human was struggling for his life. Dretafa knew the device was _very _painful, he should know. After all, he was the one who invented it.

He felt the doctor bite down on his hand in his vain attempts to escape the hold and despite the pain, he held onto the Humans mouth. He refused to let his plan fail after all those years planning it.

Julian was scared, he had no idea what was happening. Why were people hurting him? He could feel there were at least five of them, and they were very strong.

He tried biting the hand that was covering his screams, but the intruder didn't even seem to notice. He was about to yell as loud as he could when an excruciating pain hit him in the head. The _worst _case of nausea he had ever experience overwhelmed him and he lost all sensation as he slipped out of consciousness.

Dretafa saw the moment of retrieval, the Human went completely limp and all struggling was abandoned. He signalled his fellow Kobliad's to release the doctor and removed his own hand. The Human was lying limply on the bed; his eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling. For one awful moment, he feared he had killed him.

Until, he blinked.

He smiled and felt a sense of pride in himself. It worked!

The Human blinked once more, obviously trying to regain some form of consciousness. His eyes focussed and looked around aimlessly, he couldn't see anything. "Wha-"

"Shhh, Rao. Everything is fine. I brought you back" Dretafa whispered and signalled the lights to come on.

Rao sat up in bed, touching his aching head and paused when he felt the device still attached to his forehead "What's this?"

"Unfortunately, your body was taken and destroyed five years ago. I wanted to bring it back here and transfer your mind back into it. But, obviously that wasn't possible, so you're back in the body of that Starfleet Officer" Dretafa explained calmly.

"I'm in this Human's body again?" Rao asked simply.

"Yes, Sir" Dretafa moved to get a mirror; he knew his science partner couldn't control the body all that well just yet.

"Urgh. Did you say six years?" Rao still felt drowsy as he accepted the mirror, this Human definitely looked older.

"Yes, Sir. It took me a _long_ time to come up with the necessary schematics for the device. At this moment in time, it's pushing the Human away and bringing you forward."

Rao laid the mirror down beside him and stared at Dretafa "Dretafa, the Trill removed me from this body, I felt the transfer. How am I here?"

Dretafa gave a smile and explained "You attached your consciousness to the Human's brain; it was not possible to remove all of you without seriously damaging their friends brain. It was just a chance they had to take, the Science Officer must have known a part of you remained but assumed you would never again immerge. How wrong she was" He chuckled.

"I feel weak" Rao was slumping back down to the mattress as he spoke.

"I know, Rao. Just rest, the device will do its work as you sleep. When you awake, the doctor will be near enough dead. You'll have complete control over his body and memories once more. Use the combadge to contact me whenever you want and you should avoid acting suspicious. The last time you were in this Human, you only controlled him at necessary intervals, this time; you'll _always _have control and must act like him. There's a PADD on the table with everything that has happened on the station, plus the memories you now possess, no one should suspect anything. Just avoid any brain scans, alright?" He joked and smiled, waving his comrades to follow him out of the room, leaving Rao to rest and regain his strength.

XXX

"Where's Julian?" Kira asked as the senior staff were sitting down ready for a new meeting. Julian was late by at least ten minutes and it was uncharacteristically like him.

She looked around the table and saw the other officers shake their heads or shrug their shoulders. Kira pursed her lips together and leaned forward, tapping her combadge.

"Kira to Bashir"

"_Yes, Major?"_

"We're all waiting for you, Doctor. Would you _kindly _bring yourself here" Kira looked at Odo with a comic look of annoyance.

"_Where exactly, Major?"_

Kira frowned at his response. Julian never forgot a meeting, fair enough, he's _missed _some, they all have. But there were always explanations, like someone getting injured.

"Julian. There was a staff meeting scheduled today. We're waiting for you" Kira said with obvious annoyance, just to _hint _to Julian that he has angered her.

"_Oh. Er, well I'll be right there. Same place, right?"_

Kira could see the whole senior staff frown and look at each other, confused. She gave Miles a worried look before answering "Yes, Julian. The same place the meetings have always taken place. You better be here in twenty minutes"

"_Understood"_

XXX

Rao had woken up with complete control of the body. It was _brilliant. _He couldn't hear the Human at all, it was so peaceful.

He just planned on lying in the bed all day; he hadn't had a body for _so _long and wanted to remember what it felt like to do _nothing._

He was just about to doze off once more, when the Doctor's combadge chirped on the bedside table next to him. He was quick to answer.

_Damn! _A staff meeting. He burrowed deep inside the Human's memory and discovered there was a meeting scheduled for 0830 hours, exactly ten minutes ago.

Coming up with excuses, he promptly answered back to the Bajoran and began to change.

Stripping from the Doctor's pyjama's, Rao discovered that the Human had been working out. He was definitely firmer and more toned than he was all those years ago. Rao's Kobliad body was old and fading away, but _this one. _This one was _strong. _He had to keep hold of this body for as long as possible, he would not give it up without a fight.

After admiring the body, he changed into a uniform, discovering they had been changed. "I prefer the old ones, myself" he mumbled to himself as he put the jumpsuit on.

Now he needed to go to the meeting. Once again, he searched the Doctors mind for the whereabouts of the meeting room.

There was _so _much information and memories in the Human brain. He just had to know everything about the Doctor. Rao promised himself he'd spend the entire night invading the Human's privacy by reading his memories.

With one last chuckle, he strolled out of the door towards the meeting.

XXX

"About time, Julian" Miles chided as Julian marched in and took the only available seat.

"Sorry I'm late, Chief! I completely forgot about the meeting" Rao tried his best to sound nonchalant, but didn't quite succeed. His voice came out too cheerful. He hoped no one noticed.

They did.

Dax leaned forward and put her hands together "Why so cheerful, Julian?"

Rao turned his gaze towards the voice, _who's that? _He felt a stab of panic until the Doctor's memories surfaced and he placed the name. He smiled as he spoke "Ezri. I just am! Is that so bad?"

_Oh. Doctor. You like her don't you._

Dax's eyes widened "Alright. I didn't mean to upset you!"

_Damn. Come up with an excuse._

"I'm sorry, Ezri. I'm just stressed with all the… research I'm doing. I thought I made a big breakthrough, but didn't. Sorry"

Dax was just about to say something when Kira coughed "Now, if you two have stopped bickering… we need to begin with the topic"

XXX

The Chief had invited Rao for a quick drink at the Ferengi's bar; he had tried to decline, but was forced into going.

They had been sitting down for just under one hour, and the Chief was babbling on about something completely uninteresting. Rao almost lashed out, but reminded himself he had to act like the Doctor until he was contacted.

"…what'dya think?" The Chief's voice startled him. He wasn't even paying attention to what the boring man was saying.

_Better make up an excuse and get the hell out of here, Rao._

"Sorry, Chief. I've gotta go. I don't feel too well" He raised himself up ready to leave, but something else happened.

Something he was completely unprepared for.

"Miles!" The word erupted from his mouth, the sound echoed around the entire bar and every face turned to look at him.

_Damn._

_Rao couldn't move._

_Couldn't do anything._

"M-Miles. H-help…" Julian was trying so hard to resurface, but was rapidly losing strength and fell back into unconsciousness, while Rao regained control.

Miles looked at his friend with worry; he got up from his chair and approached Rao. "Julian. What's the matter?"

_Damn._

_C'mon Rao. Fix this._

"I-I-I, er, need your help, Chief. I don't think I can make it to my quarters by myself"

"You wanna go to the Infirmary?" Miles asked with genuine concern.

Rao waved an arm "Oh no. I just have a little bit of a headache. I just don't want to lose my sense of direction"

Miles nodded and placed and arm around Rao's shoulder, before the two strolled out of the bar.

XXX

"Thanks, Chief. I'll see you tomorrow!" Rao didn't want to spend another second with this man. Before the Chief could respond, Rao entered the Doctor's quarters and sealed the door.

"Computer, lights."

Rao paced up to the communication panel and was ready to contact Dretafa; he was furious. "Dretafa! Respond"

"_Dretafa here. What is it?"_

"The Human came out today! He's stronger than you thought he is! I couldn't move this body for about seven seconds! Come by, we need to use the device again"

"_Are you sure, Rao? It is pretty painful" _

"I'm sure. I've lived through death, I'm sure I can handle it"

XXX

No more than five minutes later, the Human's door chimed "Come in"

Dretafa walked in with a huge smile "Rao! You _are _Rao, right?" he joked as he pointed to the bedroom.

Rao glared at him as he walked to the bed, he lied down on the mattress and waited patiently for Dretafa to place the device on his forehead.

"This is going to hurt, but it will be more painful to the Human. So don't be surprised if a scream works its way past your throat. It's not your scream; it's the Doctor's scream."

Dretafa waited for Rao's nod then placed the device on the forehead "Ready?"

"Ready. I just don't want this Human taking control again!"

"Understood. This one should kill him" Dretafa stated as he turned the device on and immediately covered the Human's mouth with his hand as a scream of _agony _escaped.

XXX

The device had an unknown side effect. While the energy waves were pushing the Doctor away, it was also causing damage to the part of the Human brain where Rao was.

Little did Dretafa or Rao know that with each use of the device, they were killing Julian _and _Rao.

XXX

"Julian you look a little pale" Dax said as she sat down next to her friend at the Replimat.

Rao didn't want to come here, but he thought he'd better if we wanted to avoid any suspicion. If he spent all his time in the Humans quarters, people would think something was wrong.

Ezri was right. When Rao looked in the mirror, he noticed the colour of the Doctor's skin was paler than usual. "I'm just tired" _and have a very bad headache._

"Do you want to go to the Infirmary?"

Rao shook his head, which caused a wave of nausea to wash over him. He involuntarily winced "N-no. I'm just tired…"

Ezri knew Julian, and she knew this was completely unlike him. Fair enough, Julian would neglect his health for a patient or a breakthrough, but nothing was happening right now. Why was he lying to her?

"Julian. Something's wrong. Why don't-"

"Ezri! H-help…m-me!"

Dax stared at her friends eyes and saw something awful, something she only saw once, something that he never thought she'd see again.

"Ezri! Please! Brain… NO! Go away! Leave! Get out! Go-"

Ezri watched in horror when her friend was shouting to himself. She contacted Ops and called for a transport to the Infirmary, when the shouting stopped. She looked in time to see the Doctor collapse out of his chair and onto the floor.

XXX

"It's Kobliad"

"Rao Vantika?"

"Yes"

"We need to get him out, but I'm afraid to cause more damage. There's already a lot of scarring and damage to his brain. I don't want to make it worse"

"Do what you have to. I just want Rao dead and Julian back."

Jabara nodded as Kira and Dax stood in the science lab.

Dax lead them to Jadzia's old work station "These are the scans from the first incident with Rao. And this is the scan Jabara took twenty minutes ago. It's worse. Julian's obviously in there somewhere, but it's going to be hard to get him out. Unless…"

Kira and Jabara looked at Dax with hope in their eyes "Unless…?" Kira asked

Ezri looked at them both "If we leave Rao alone, he's going to get stronger and Julian will be dead. If we try and remove Rao's biosignature, it will cause irreversible brain damage. So that leaves one last option. We completely remove the part of the brain that Rao has taken for his own. What do you think, Jabara?"

Jabara blinked as the two women stared at her "Er. I can't think of another way. I, er. I can't do the procedure. We'll need a proper Doctor. It'll be incredibly dangerous and Julian would be unconscious for _weeks _to recover. I recommend sending him back to Earth, where he can fully recuperate"

Ezri was about to say something, but decided against it. If a professional medical officer thought it would be best for Julian to stay on Earth to have the operation and stay, then it must be the right decision.

"I'll contact Starfleet Medical and arrange a shuttle for him. We should heavily sedate him or put him in stasis"

Jabara nodded "Stasis will be best; it will stop any progress Rao may have"

XXX

**6 WEEKS LATER**

"Still no word?" Dax asked as the senior staff were sitting in the meeting room. She was incredibly worried.

Sisko turned to face her "I haven't heard anything, Old Man. But that doesn't mean anything bad. Maybe nothing has changed"

He looked up when Kira marched in, fear and shock on her face. "I-I just got this message, Sir"

Ezri felt her stomach twist in a knot at the look of Kira's face.

Kira stared at Sisko's face "He's… dead, Sir"

Sisko just blinked, his breath hitched as he processed what he was just told "Wh-what?"

"The message was just sent about a minute ago. He died at 1756"

"How can he die?" Miles near enough shouted, showing the feelings of everyone else in the room "I mean, it's… _him. _He can't die!"

Ezri felt tears sting in her eyes and could do nothing to prevent herself from crying.

"We'll hold a service for him tomorrow at 0900 hours. Inform his family and work colleagues. I've got to go to the Infirmary…"

Sisko walked out of the room whilst trying to process what he had just been told. _It can't be true!_

He didn't even notice that Ezri began following him.

XXX

Jabara was just finishing her checks on the only patient in the Infirmary, when the Captain walked in.

"Sir. Any word?" she enquired as she walked up to him.

The tears in Ezri's eyes and Sisko's expression answered her question. She couldn't stop herself from crying.

"He died at 1756; we don't know what happened yet. They're going to send us a report soon"

Jabara nodded and sat down on the nearest chair. _How could he die? _

Ezri walked to comfort her; she wrapped her arms around Jabara's shaking shoulders "We're having a service tomorrow. You should give a speech; after all, he was your brother"

Jabara nodded her head; her brother was somewhat of a legend. She would never forget the moment someone informed her of the attack on his ship by a strange Alien ship. He was sent straight to Bajor for surgery, but obviously didn't survive the injuries he sustained.

"He was a great man, Jabara. Many people will agree with me when I say that his life was commendable and that Bajor lost a fine, _fine _individual" Sisko stood and looked over to the only occupied biobed in the Infirmary. "How is Julian?"

Jabara lifted her head and faced the Captain. She sniffed "He's fine. Rao is completely gone and Julian should be awake in a few days."

_The surgery was a complete success and Julian was due to be awake in a few days._

_With _the _worst headache._

END

**Did you like it? I hope it didn't seem rushed but the story is just over 3k and I didn't want to do a super long fic about his recovery and whatnot, so I just went in there.**

**Did anyone think he died? Hmmmm? Don't lie, I bet you did!**

**So, I've got the holosuite on going on now. But next up, it's the DD9 AU.**

***For those who don't know DD9, it's an AU where the entire DS9 cast are Human and work in a pizza restaurant called Deep Dish Nine. There's the rival pizza restaurant called Dominion Pizza's. You can find a bunch of fics of Archive of Our Own and on Tumblr. It's all love stories at the moment, so I had to do a whumping story! Enjoy my little sneak peek!**

""**He's a friend"**

"**An older friend" the man squinted at the photo and his eyes went wide "You're holding hands!"**

"**Yes" Julian replied with blunt honesty.**

**The Tramp threw down the key set in disgust, before he brought knife up and placed it against Julian's throat. "You're **_**gay" **_

_**Shit. Don't tell me this man is a homophobic.**_

"**We're good friends!" **

"**No! You're gay. You're filth!" The man lowered the knife, only to plunge it deep in Julian's midsection…."**

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH**

**Oh. And pssssst, the Tramp and I share completely different views. If you're gay, that's absolutely fine and cool and awesome! *Just thought I'd let you know in case you think I'm a homophobic. I AM NOT***

**See ya later!**


End file.
